The Unnamed God Card
by viper's fang
Summary: Ten years after Judai left Duel Academia, he goes to a dueling school in North America, where he meets up with Asuka and Marie, an OC. He hasn't aged in ten years, so he enters as a student and there's new trouble concerning Marie and her deck. It's a horrible summary, but a good story. -Changed to T for language-
1. New Student

**Hey, Viper here! This is my first fanfic, so please don't be too harsh. There is something that needs to be explained before I continue, otherwise you're bound to be confused. I put North Duel Academy in America, so I maintain all the English honorifics, except when Chronos is mentioned. Otherwise, all POVs use English honorifics. However, I have decided to use the Japanese names. Here's the hard part. Terms change depending on the POV. For example, when Judai is speaking, he would say Duel Academia, but the OC would say Duel Academy since she's American. The same goes for Slifer and Osiris. That's a really crappy explanation, and if anyone needs that clarified, PM and I'll be happy to try to explain better. I also don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX and don't pretend to, though it would be pretty cool...**

Asuka's POV, second person

Asuka sat awake in her room, staring at the picture she kept on her desk. It was one of her and Judai while they were still in Duel Academia, way back in their first year. Back before Judai changed, back when he was still carefree.

It had been ten years since the last time Asuka had even seen him at graduation. Everyone wondered where he had suddenly disappeared to, and everyone turned to her, but she didn't have an answer to give. It was like he never existed. The only thing that marked his existence were the warm memories that everyone had of him. That, and the fact that the world was still in one piece.

After a while, everyone else began to move on. They no longer really wondered about where Judai was, they just assumed he was out there somewhere in the world, dueling and saving the world happily without them.

Asuka was the only one that still cared about what happened to Judai all those years ago. He just up and left, without a single trace. She couldn't help but worry about what happened to him. She wondered where he was and what he was doing.

A light knock at her door shook her out of her thoughts. "Miss Tenjouin?" came a timid voice through the oak panels. It was one of her students, Marie Windsford. Asuka rose to her feet and padded over to the door.

Opening it slightly, she asked, "Yes, Marie? Do you need help with studying for your next semester exam? It's next week, but if you really need some help with it, I'll be happy to..."

"Is it true that a new student will be coming here?" Marie blurted out, her lavender eyes darting around to the dark hallway behind her. Asuka frowned slightly.

"I haven't heard of any new student. Why?"

"There's a lot of rumors floating around about him..." Marie started, nervous. "I heard that he used to go to your old school, Miss Tenjouin, and that he's a really good duelist."

"Well, as interesting as that is, why did you feel the need to come here to talk about it?" Asuka wondered, now bored with the gossip of this teen-aged girl.

"I also heard that he has some sort of weird power..." Asuka couldn't bear it anymore. She was tired, and she was concerned about Judai, which didn't mean good news for this student.

"Enough, Marie! Who told you this? It was probably just a joke, now go back to your room and try to get some sleep. The next week's going to be hard on you, especially if you slack off like you did last year. And please tell the seniors that I will not tolerate them telling any more stories!" Asuka shooed the bewildered student away and slammed the door shut.

She sighed. She hadn't meant to snap on Marie like that. Oh, well. Marie needed to learn not to believe in everything she hears from her upperclassmen. In Asuka's five years of teaching at the North Duel Academy, she noticed that the older students liked to tell stories to their underclassmen, to scare them or tease them. This was just another case of that...right?

**A bit boring, but it'll definitely get better.**


	2. Marie's Flashback

Marie's POV, first person

I had never seen Miss Tenjouin act like that. It had kind of scared me to see her so angry. It made me wonder why. Was it because I told her about the new student that was supposed to be arriving sometime within the week? Or was it because I bothered her at half past ten at night? I didn't think so, considering Miss Tenjouin often took walks on campus after hours.

Still, it wasn't one of the older students who told me about the newcomer. It was Principal Thompson himself who told me.

(flashback)

I was running down the hall to my next class, late as always. I just happened to run into Principal Thompson. Literally. My books went flying, and I went down. Principal Thompson had to struggle to stay on his feet. As he was helping me pick up my books, he looked worried about something.

"Is something bothering you, Mr. Thompson?" I asked, only mildly curious. I really just wanted to get to class without an issue.

"Can you keep a secret, Marie?" he asked, glancing up at me with a worried expression on his face.

"Sure," I answered, not really knowing where this was going.

"There's a student that's going to be coming here soon. He's a transfer student from Domino City."

"Why does this need to be kept a secret?" I asked.

"He used to go to the famous Duel Academy not far from Domino City. You know, where Miss Tenjouin used to be a student at."

"The school that only accepts the best duelists in the world?" I wondered, my jaw dropping. "Why would he want to transfer here?"

"Well, here's the thing. I checked his records at Duel Academy and it's true that he attended that school...ten years ago. He graduated with the same class as Miss Tenjouin."

"What!"

"Shh! There's more. Even though he was a Slifer Red student with low grades, the records ranked him as the best duelist in that academy."

I didn't have anything to say to that, since it was also true in my case.

"But this isn't even the most disturbing part," Mr. Thompson continued. "He looked exactly the same as he did ten years ago!"

Now I was sure Mr. Thompson was joking with me. "Mr. Thompson, thank you for the interesting tale, but I'm late for class, so if you'll excuse me..." I shuffled to get around him.

"Marie, I promise I'm not lying. I wish I was. I'll even show you the practice duel tape and show you the picture I found."

"I really have to get to class, Mr. Thompson," I said, thinking that Mr. Thompson was finally going crazy from not having enough sleep. I always knew coffee messed with the mind.

"If you come to my office, I'll write send a message to your teacher excusing you from this period," Mr. Thompson offered.

Finally, some good coming from this seeming mental breakdown. "Sure," I answered, giving in.

(end flashback)

You could imagine my surprise when it turned out to be true. Mr. Thompson asked me to keep an eye on this new student when he showed up, since he was so suspicious. I figured I would go ask Miss Tenjouin about him since she might have known him, but her little fit of rage stopped me from doing so. Well, I couldn't tell anyone else about this (not that they would believe me anyway), so I was just going to have to deal with it by myself.

* * *

**I'm a little anxious about how this turned out. If anything's off, please let me know and I will try to fix it.**


	3. Informed

Asuka's POV, second person (next morning)

"You wished to see me, Mr. Thompson?" Asuka asked, slightly tired from staying up all night. But she was more worried about Mr. Thompson, who was looking even worse than she felt.

"Uh, yes," he replied. "I just called you here to inform you of a transfer student. He'll be arriving sometime this week, maybe today even."

"Okay...But don't all the teachers need to be aware of his arrival?" Asuka asked curiously.

"I've already informed them, I just needed to fill you in."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner, sir?" she wondered angrily.

"Well...nevermind. Just be sure to keep an eye out for him, okay?"

"Of course, sir," Asuka replied. It seemed like the principal was hiding something from her, but Asuka wasn't really concerned about it.

It looked like Marie was right. Everyone seemed to know about this mysterious new student before she did. Oh, well. It bothered Asuka, but she didn't care enough to get into a rampage about it.

She spun on her heel and exited the principal's office. That little delay made her late to her first class of the day.

* * *

**Asuka POVs are short and horribly boring for me. I'll only use them if I have to from now on.**


	4. Enter Judai

**There are going to be a lot of time skips, just warning you. At this point, there's not much to put at the same time, hence the numerous time skips.**

* * *

Judai's POV, first person (two days later)

I set down my backpack, staring at the monstrous white building. "So this is the new school, huh?" I wondered. I was still wearing my red Osiris jacket from Duel Academia. Pretty soon, I was going to be forced into a new uniform, but the jacket from Duel Academia was always going to stay with me.

Pharaoh the cat leaped out of an open pouch in my bag and mewed loudly. Professor Daitokuji slipped out and took form next to me. "Are you sure you want to do this Judai? Jim has been working on archaeology, Johan's gone to be a pro duelist, Manjoume has taken over his brothers' positions, and Sho and Hayato have been working at Industrial Illusions. Everyone has moved on. You should do the sa-"

Whatever else Professor Daitokuji had wanted to say was cut off when Pharoah swallowed him again. I chuckled and Pharaoh disappeared back into the bag. Still, what Daitokuji had said was true. Everyone had moved on without me. Only I was still the same.

I hadn't aged a single day since that duel with Yugi Motou, but it wasn't just my appearance that hadn't changed. I still wanted to be at Duel Academia with my friends, like nothing disastrous happened. That was impossible, but I had been keeping watch over my friends ever since I had "disappeared." I never wanted to talk to them because I didn't want them to see me the same age I was ten years ago, but at least I knew they were all doing fine.

The only person I wasn't able to keep tabs on was Asuka. I had no idea where she was. I could only hope she was moving on like everyone else.

Since I couldn't hold onto a job looking like a teenager for the rest of my life, I decided to go back to attending school.

On a slightly less morbid note, there was supposed to be a guide from my new dorm coming to show me around the place. She was supposed to meet me in front of the school ten minutes ago. I wondered vaguely if anything happened to her.

Before I could think about it anymore, a girl came sprinting out of the sliding doors.

* * *

**If anyone notices that Judai's POV refers to him in second person, that's because I originally had Judai's POV be second person, but changed that later on to first person. I tried to fix the whole thing, but I occasionally find mistakes.**


	5. Marie's First Encounter

Marie's POV, first person

Oh, crap! I overslept. I was supposed to go get that new kid, and I slept right through the alarm, like usual. As per Mr. Thompson's request, I got to skip a whole day's worth of classes just to show this kid around our school. In exchange, I had to keep an eye on him for the rest of the year and report anything suspicious.

But I wasn't really responsible enough for this job. The first day and I already was making a bad impression. If this guy was really stuck up about being on time, I wasn't going to be able to keep an eye on him for long.

I sprinted through the halls, hoping I wasn't as late as I thought I was. The clocks on the walls seemed to glare at me as I ran past, pointing out that I was an hour behind. That kid was probably long gone by now! Maybe I was lucky and he got held up somewhere, or maybe he decided not to come today after all...

The doors almost couldn't open fast enough. I barrelled past them and saw a glimpse of a faded red jacket. Yes! He was still there! I couldn't stand it anymore. I bent over and panted with relief.

"Um, are you okay?" a voice asked, right next to me. I nearly shot up and hit the kid in the face.

"I am so sorry!" I apologized.

"For what?" he asked.

"I made you wait so long!" I almost half-sobbed.

"You were supposed to meet me here ten minutes ago, that's not that long," he answered. Wait, what? Ten minutes? That's it? "And I've only been here about a minute or so."

"Really?" I asked, calming down. Had he really only been here for a minute?

"Yeah, I'm Judai, by the way," the two-tone brown-haired kid said.

"Marie, it's nice to meet you. Is it true that you went to Duel Academy?"

"Yeah, there were a lot of great duelists there. It was a lot of fun," Judai chirped cheerily, a goofy grin on his face.

"Why did you leave?" I asked. As soon as I did, I knew I dropped the big bombshell. Judai's face paled and his expression fell. He didn't answer. I didn't mention the fact that I knew he graduated already, or that he graduated ten years ago.

"You know, we have a teacher here who used to go to Duel Academy," I prattled.

"Really?" Judai asked, kind of excited. "That's so cool, maybe I've heard of them." I had a strong feeling he did.

"Anyways, I might as well give you the grand tour."

"Lead on," Judai said, eager to get inside.

The whole rest of the day, I told him about how similar the classification system was to Duel Academy's, where the rooms were, where all of his classes were (he basically shared all of mine), etc, etc. Like me, Judai was placed in Slifer Red and would be getting a uniform similar to the one he already had. But unlike Duel Academy, all the dorms were a part of the school. Judai's room wasn't far from mine, actually, but the girl's and guy's dorms were seperated, too.

He seemed to take it all in stride. Like me, he was free from having classes today because it was his first day and all of that time was devoted to showing him all around the huge school. Judai really got excited when I showed him to the state-of-the-art dueling arenas we had. It was like watching a little kid at Christmas, really. For some someone who had a mysterious background and hadn't aged for ten years, this kid really didn't seem that suspicious.


	6. A Surprise Reunion

Marie's POV, first person (next day, third period)

I was a bit anxious for this period the whole morning. Why? Because this was the period that Judai Yuki and Miss Tenjouin were going meet. I wondered what their reactions were going to be. Judai didn't seem too concerned about seeing the teacher from his old school; I could already see him starting to fall asleep in his chair.

Miss Tenjouin was still out roaming the halls for late comers, so Judai hadn't seen her yet, and she probably hasn't even heard of his arrival yet. Man, were they both in for a surprise.

The bell rang and Miss Tenjouin clacked into the classroom. "Alright, everyone, settle down," she said, not yet noticing the new kid slumped over his desk. "I'm going take roll call now, so please sit down and prepare for class. According to Mr. Thompson, there should be a new name on the list..." she muttered to herself, pulling the list up on the computer.

She went through all of the normal names, looking prepared for just a normal day. But when Miss Tenjouin reached the last name, she tripped over it and looked up hurriedly. When she locked sights on the dual-toned brown hair, she looked like she was about to collapse.

"Judai?" she asked. At the sound of his name, Judai woke up and glanced at Miss Tenjouin. His expression of surprise was only surpassed by Miss Tenjouin's.

"Asuka?" he exclaimed. Murmurs spread up and down the isles.

"Who does he think he's talking to?" "Do they know each other?" "I'll laugh when Miss Tenjouin gives him detention for calling her by her first name." I just chuckled to myself. I got the feeling that Judai wasn't going to be punished.

"U-um, may I see you in the hall, Mr. Yuki?" Miss Tenjouin stammered, barely recovering her teacher's pride.

Judai silently moved to the door and Miss Tenjouin slid back out into the hall behind him. As the door shut, all the kids turned to talk to each other. I hurried around to the classroom's second exit and slipped out of the room unnoticed. No way I was going to miss this conversation.

I ended up in a hall parallel to the one that Miss Tenjouin and Judai were in. To get to the other hall, I passed through the conveniently empty classroom neighboring mine and stood in the doorway that opened up to the targeted hall. I was lucky; the conversation was only starting.


	7. A Secret Conversation

Judai's POV, first person

I just couldn't believe it. So this was where Asuka had been. At least now I knew how Asuka was, but this caused problems for me.

Asuka knew me. This was supposed to be a new start for me, not a reunion. Besides, the not aging thing was going to take some explaining and I wasn't really sure why I stopped aging.

For a few minutes, we just stared at each other. Asuka was the first to break the silence. "Where have you been?" she asked. "Everyone's been worried about you and I had no idea where you went. Do you have any idea how long we looked for you?"

"Well, funny story there, Asuka," I muttered. "See, during graduation, I met up with Yugi Motou and then we dueled and I woke up in the middle of a desert some time after that."

"Don't make it sound that simple! What have you been doing? You could have at least met up with us or something!"

"Why? I knew everyone was fine. Besides, how exactly do I explain looking the same age as I did ten years ago? I don't even understand it." Though I had a feeling it had to do with Yubel's powers...

"Didn't you learn to trust your friends after the Haou incident..." that was like a verbal slap to the face; Asuka knew that even now I was still haunted about that. "And I thought we went over this. It doesn't matter if you have Yubel's powers or if you doubt yourself sometimes. We'll always be there for you."

I knew that. Yet the thing that Asuka didn't seem to get was that I didn't want her or anyone else involved with my problems. I didn't want to hurt any more people due to my selfishness...again.


	8. Eavesdropper

Marie's POV, first person

What were they talking about? Haou? Yubel's powers? I was lost. I did know that I wasn't listening in on any normal conversation. **(A/N: Um, the kid hadn't aged in ten years, that should be pretty obvious, Marie ^^')** There was definitely some deep history between them, and I was determined to find out what happened. **(A/N: ^^')**

"I know that, Asuka," Judai answered, suddenly speaking up. A long silence settled over the two again.

"Oh, and my name isn't Asuka anymore, it's Miss Tenjouin. You better remember that I'm your teacher now," Miss Tenjouin said, laughing.

Judai laughed with her and added, "And you better remember that I sleep in class."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll have a special punishment just for you," Miss Tenjouin sneered.

"Please don't tell me you've turned into another Chronos-sensei!" Judai chuckled.

"Nobody could be as bad as that guy!" Miss Tenjouin replied. She stopped giggling and her face got serious again. "It's good to have you back, Judai."

"It's good to be back, uh, sort of."

"I just hope you can have a normal school life now."

"I hope so, too. It gets a little tiring to keep saving the world!" On that note, they both turned to re-enter the classroom. That was my cue to scuttle back the way I came. I slipped in unnoticed as Judai was going back to his seat and Miss Tenjouin was going back to her desk. All the other students were chattering excitedly.

The rest of the day passed normally, with Judai sleeping in class and Miss Tenjouin pretending to get mad at him. I really wondered how that kid slept so much. He slept in all the classes. That kind of made me wonder what he did at night...I didn't dwell on it too much.

I was so tired by the end of the day that I forgot to tell Mr. Thompson what I found out. Oh, well...


	9. Field Exam

Marie's POV, first person (just before she goes to the field exam)

Judai was so lucky. He didn't have to take the exams, since he just arrived a few days ago. I, on the other hand, had to suffer through a long and horribly hard written exam. I spent fifty minutes staring at the same question, then used the remaining ten to randomly fill in answers. Somehow, I managed to pass (if you could call it that) with a D-. Oh, well, the field exams were coming up, and those I always aced those without a single issue.

I was actually amazed at just how much Judai was like me: he was nearly always late to class, he slept late, and sometimes didn't even show up. His homework scores were horrid, but he was always up for a duel. (I only knew that because he always told me. He never really got a chance to duel anyone, so I couldn't see just how good he was.)

We had gotten closer over the past few days, and I began to look at him more as a friend and less as a mystery that needed solving. I never did tell Mr. Thompson about what I overheard, nor did I ask Judai about it. I figured it would be better to leave him alone about it, at least for now.

I walked into the dueling gym, where several dueling arenas were set up. There was just enough to fit ten matches in at a time. I was in the last round of duelists, so I went over to stairs leading to the bleachers.

Somehow, Judai managed to get a seat next to Miss Tenjouin. There were plenty of open seats all around them, so I snuck up behind them and sat down. They didn't notice. I sat behind them quietly the whole time that led up to my match, hoping they were going to talk about their past again, but the subject never came up. They were too absorbed into the duels taking place below. Miss Tenjouin was explaining each of the different decks to Judai, a seemingly student-teacher conversation. For knowing each other so well in the past, they sure kept up a good act.

Either way, before I knew it, it was my turn to duel and I sighed as I got to my feet. At least they assigned me a good partner this time. Maybe he'd last for more than a round. Then again, I just wanted to go back to my room to sleep, so maybe I wouldn't be merciful today afterall...


	10. Crimson Dragon of Rage

Judai's POV, first person

I watched as Marie made her way to the dueling arenas, her slightly curly black hair making her easy to spot. I didn't even realize that she was sitting behind us.

"Who is she dueling?" I asked Asuka.

"She's actually dueling an Obelisk named Gregory Mitch."

"An Obelisk?" I wondered aloud. "Just like I did in my first year at the academia..."

"Yeah, well, it's because she is a duelist with an unstoppable deck and skill to match. Even you'd have a hard time against her," Asuka answered.

"Really?" I asked, getting excited. "Then I just have to duel her sometime! Wait, then why is she in Slifer?"

"The same reason you were always in Osiris: she never does her homework and she fails all of her tests," Asuka answered, smiling.

"That's scary; she's just like me!" I exclaimed. It was like watching myself back in Duel Academia. Um, that is, if I was a black-haired girl.

"No, she just shares your laziness," Asuka quipped.

"Hey, I apologized for falling asleep!" Old habits die hard, even if an old friend is the teacher.

"Look, her match is starting," Asuka said, changing the subject.

"So what was that unstoppable deck you mentioned?" I asked.

"It's called the Crimson Monster deck, but it's also known as the Pairing deck or the Dual deck."

"It has pears in it? And I thought all Duel Monsters cards were for doing dueling," I asked, mildly confused.

"How did I know you were going to say that..." Asuka muttered. "Anyway, it's made up of rare monsters that don't have a lot of attack points, but almost all of them have multiple special abilities that render that fact totally useless. Just watch, and you'll see."

I looked down into the arena where Marie was dueling. This match was definitely going to have my undivided attention. "My draw!" Marie cried, quickly pulling a card from her deck.

She actually began to laugh! "Sorry, Greg, but this duel is already in my favor."

Greg, naturally, got pretty angry at that remark. "This match hasn't even started! When it's my turn, I'll show everyone exactly who'll be winning this match, and it won't be you Slifer!" Ah, that line took me back to the good old days when I used to hear that all the time.

"If you say so," Marie snickered. "I play Crimsom Fairy of Vanity in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1000/def:550)! By her effect, I can summon two lower level monsters directly to the field. After all, a vain person always likes to have flunkies around to make her look better. I summon Crimson Flame Fox (lv.2/def:600/atk:400) and Crimson Witch of Fickle Fate (lv.2/def:400/atk:300) in defense mode!" Amazing. Three monsters on her first turn.

I leaned back in my seat. I didn't really see where she was going with this, but she did set up a pretty good defense. Maybe she had a few tricks up her sleeve...

"My turn!" Greg called, drawing. He smiled. "I play Bone Sabertooth in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1500/def:800). Bone Sabertooth, attack her witch!"

The witch disengrated into ruby dust. "I activate my witch's effect! When she is destroyed in battle, you have to show me your hand and I get to send one of your cards to the graveyard. However, I must lose life points equal to my witch's attack points."

"Fine," Greg snarled and the cards appeared in front of Marie.

"Hm," she said, deliberating. "I think I'll send Monster Reborn to the grave." That was kind of like the move Chronos-sensei pulled when I first dueled him. But why did she pick Monster Reborn? One of the cards in Greg's hand was Battle Rage, a card that would allow him to battle again in one turn. Why would she leave it alone? The next target was going to be that fairy of hers, and it was going to become fairy dust if she didn't do something!

Greg looked slightly relieved. "Okay, now to do what I should have done in the first place! I use the spell card Battle Rage. By discarding one card to my grave, I can battle again. Now, time for your fairy to disappear. Bone Sabertooth, attack Fairy of Vanity!" The fairy dissolved, leaving Marie with just Crimson Fox on the field. "I won't make another foolish mistake like that again! My turn's over." Greg warned. (Greg's LP:4000/Marie's LP:3200)

"Why destroy Monster Reborn?" I asked, directing my question towards Asuka. "She could've saved her fairy."

"Actually, it was a very prudent move. Greg's deck is made up of skeletal monsters, meaning it's like a zombie or a ghost deck. It revolves around the graveyard. Did you happen to notice the high-level monster that was in his hand? By sending that monster to the grave, he could use Monster Reborn to special summon it without sacrifices. And since it is a graveyard deck, it probably gains some sort of power boost when it's summoned from the graveyard," she answered. Just what you'd expect from Asuka...no, Miss Tenjouin now.

"Although," she continued, interrupting my thoughts. "He might still have a chance to summon it. He still used Battle Rage and the card he sent to the graveyard was probably that high-level monster. So, Greg probably still has least one card that he can use to summon his monster. But don't count Marie out, either. Her fairy has a special effect that activates when it's re-summoned to the field, that's why she _wanted_ Greg to destroy it."

"She did?" I asked, amazed.

"Just watch," Asuka ordered.

"My draw! And I summon...Crimson Pheonix (lv.3/atk:600/def:1500) in attack mode. However, it won't stay for long. By sacrificing it, I can summon a monster back from my graveyard. I call back my Crimson Fairy of Vanity in attack mode. When she's successfully summoned from the my graveyard, her attack and defense points triple (atk:3000/def:1650). A beautiful woman does not take kindly to her pride getting hurt."

"Th-three thousand attack points?" Greg stammered.

"And that's not all. You forgot about my cute little fox on the field, didn't you? I will now activate his special ability and add his attack points to my fairy's for one turn. Plus, due to another of Pheonix's abilities, he can come back to my field after he is destroyed." Crimson Fairy's attack points were now three thousand four hundred! Simply awesome. I definitely had to duel Marie.

"Crimson Fairy of Vanity, attack his Bone Sabertooth with Shattered Mirror Slicer!"

"Kuri!" Hane Kuriboh cried, appearing suddenly at my shoulder.

"Huh? That card has a duel spirit?"

"Kuri, kuri!"

"That witch of her's, too?" It had been a while since I had seen any new duel spirits besides my friends from my own deck. Not since Honest if I remember right.

I watched as Greg's Bone Sabertooth crumbled into chalky dust and faded away. His life points dropped all the way down to two thousand one hundred.

"I also play the field spell Rose Garden of Remembrance! By it's effect, I'm allowed to summon back one monster from my grave per turn. It will return to the grave after that turn. I summon my Witch of Fickle Fate. However, I now sacrifice my witch, my fox, and my pheonix in order to summon Crimson Dragon of Rage!"

A monstrous behemoth stepped out on to the field. The dragon had two heads, both with curling obsidian horns and a whip-like tail with spikes to match the horns. It let out a blood-curdling roar, making me shudder. This dragon felt...off. Almost downright evil.

"KURI!" Kuriboh cried before disappearing.

_Judai, that dragon is cursed,_ Yubel's voice whispered from inside my mind. Asuka pretended not to notice my glowing miscolored eyes and acted like she was watching the game. She didn't seem to notice anything wrong about the monster, but she knew that Yubel's power only showed up when there was trouble.

_Cursed? What about the rest of her cards?_

_They are all afraid of that beast. They fear its power, and they fear its anger. I don't know what happened, but that dragon apparently can have influence over that girl's mind._

_You don't think...that Marie could have a similar situation to the one we used to, do you?_

_I'm not sure..._ Yubel's voice faded away and I was left with troubled thoughts. What was going to happen to Marie? How did that card of hers become cursed? Apparently I wasn't the only one with a troubled past. I focused my attention back to the match.

Crimson Dragon of Rage (lv.7/atk:?/def:2600) and Crimson Fairy of Vanity (lv.4/atk:3400/def:1500) were on Marie's (LP:3200) side of the field and Greg's (LP:2100) field was wide open. Marie suddenly spoke up. "My dragon's attack points are determined by the levels of all the monsters on my field combined multiplied by a thousand. Since I only have my fairy, however, her four levels will have to suffice." Was it just me, or did Marie's way of talking just totally change?

"This dragon has a power similar to Slifer's and has the capability to surpass an Egyptian god!" Asuka gasped. I agreed, though that made my bad feeling even worse. A card that powerful and holding a serious grudge against someone or something couldn't be good news.

"With that said, my dragon's attack power becomes 4000!" Marie exclaimed, a wild look in her eyes. For a second, I even thought I saw them flash red. "Crimson Dragon of Rage, attack Greg directly with Vengeful Justice!"

The dragon opened both of its mouths, revealing four rows each of black teeth. A dark blast erupted from those maws and struck Greg, completely obliterating his remaining lifepoints. He didn't stand a chance. "Next time give me a better match," Marie sneered at the collapsed duelist before storming off the arena.

It was a few minutes before Greg was able to get to his feet and stagger off the field. Medics were gathering to help him to the nurse's office. That dragon definitely caused Greg some real damage. Looks like I wasn't going to have a peaceful year after all.

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**So, how did you enjoy the first duel of my story? Review and let me know! I did have to go back and fix it though. At first, I called Greg's monster "Bone Sabertooth" and then called it "Bone Snake" for some reason for the rest of the match. I decided that I liked "Bone Sabertooth" better and changed it. If you notice anything else like that, please tell me.**


	11. Marie and the Dragon

Marie's POV, first person

I staggered up the stairs to the bleachers. For some reason, I was getting a lot of glares. Why? Did I lose? Did I faint in the middle of the match? I couldn't remember anything after summoning my Crimson Dragon to the field. After that, it was all a red haze.

By the time I woke up, the match had ended and I was already walking away from the arena. It was amazing that I even got that far. I felt so weak, like I was about to collapse. My hands were shaking and my breathing was harsh. My head was pounding. What happened to me?

Even in the duels that were still going on, the players gave me dirty looks. Maybe I disgraced them by playing horribly. But I was so sure I was going to win, how could I lose?

This wasn't the first time this happened. A few years back, I remembered finding the Crimson Dragon thrown away in some garbage can. I couldn't believe that a card, especially one as powerful and amazing as Crimson Dragon, would be treated like trash. Better yet, by an amazing stroke of luck, the Crimson Dragon belonged in my deck because I had a Crimson beast deck. I welcomed it to my deck with pride. It was my best card.

Crimson Dragon also became a precious friend of mine. The first time he materalized next to me during a duel with a friend and spoke to me with his wise, deep voice, I was so happy. At first, my other card spirits shared my enthusiaism. Eventually, however, they changed. They became fearful of my wonderful dragon. They thought he was evil. He wasn't evil. He had a kinder heart than any of them.

Some time after I found him, though, I began to have weird blackouts in the middle of a duel. Afterwards, people always looked at me with fear and avoided me. No one wanted to play with me anymore. My own parents couldn't bear to keep me, so they sent me off to the Northern Duel Academy.

Crimson Dragon always stayed by me, always comforted me. He knew what it was like to be treated like trash, to be abandoned. He was always so kind to me. No one else could understand me like my precious dragon could.

That's right. All of my other friends didn't care about me. They would all abandon me in the end.


	12. Neo's Warning

Judai's POV, first person

I watched as Marie's appearance changed when she walked to the bleachers. She turned from a furious tyrant to a sad, barely able to stand girl. Marie was almost visibly shaking and she was really pale. Asuka noticed, too. We both rushed to her.

"Are you okay, Marie?" Asuka asked.

Marie could barely form her answer. "What do you care? You don't care for me anyway. You hate me just like everyone else!" She rocked forward and I caught her before she face-planted on the stairs.

"Marie?" I called, shaking her a bit.

"It's no good. She's out cold," Asuka barked. "Hurry up and take her to the nurse's office!" I nodded and threw Marie's slim arm over my shoulder.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Research," was the curt reply. Asuka was already disappearing into the crowds in the bleachers. I hauled Marie back down the stairs. That's when I began to notice all the dirty looks aimed at me. Or should I say, the unconscious Marie. Was it because of her dragon's attack?

I couldn't wait to get out of that place. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Elemental Hero Neos appeared the moment I was out into the deserted hallway. "Judai. You must beware that dragon of her's. I've never felt anything like it before. It's way too powerful to be any ordinary duel spirit. The only pressure that's similar to this is the Egyptian god cards, but even they might fall to its power." With that said, Neos dissolved again.

There it was again: that dragon was similar to the god cards. Was it really true? It certainly had enough power. But could it be related to the god cards? Another thought suddenly struck me. I was lost.


	13. The Extra Crimson Beast

**Hello again, everyone! Viper here. I uploaded the first twelve chapters really fast (well, this one too) and didn't pause to thank the people that were supporting me while I writing this story, which makes me feel really rude and ungrateful. So, without waiting any longer, I'd really like to thank heartbreakerninja and ScarletMucy for giving me the courage to finally publish this, and Blackcat0989 and hikaru1012 for just being awesome. I want to give a shout out to my first subscriber: Lover Of Yuki Judai And Haou and also to DFDP14, who just added this story to her favorites (which is awesome for me). You guys all rock, and thanks again for supporting me while I'm working on this story.**

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Asuka's POV, second person

_Just what happened to Marie in that match?_ Asuka wondered, wandering the spacious library. Judai's eyes glowed when Marie called out her dragon, which meant that he was using Yubel's power. Then Marie beat Greg, causing him to collapse. Not to mention her little tyrant act. When she saw Greg beaten on the ground, she just sneered at him. Marie was always good-natured and was never cruel towards people. She was always a little anti-social, but that went far beyond anti-social. That was plain resentment in her eyes.

Was the dragon to blame? Marie seemed in horrible shape herself when she tried to go up the bleacher steps. If Judai hadn't stopped her, she would've fallen pretty hard. Plus, what Marie said just before she passed out was still bothering Asuka. It was as if Marie suddenly felt that Asuka had abandoned her.

Asuka absently pulled a book about the Crimson Beast deck from the shelves and paged through it. Odd. All the Crimson Beasts should have been mentioned in the book. The spells and traps may change, but a full Crimson Beast deck would have all the monsters listed in the book. And Marie did have a full Crimson Beast deck. But she also had one extra card.

Moving onto another book, Asuka searched to see if there was a mistake with the first. She repeated this process until she exhausted all the books about the Crimson Beasts. In not one book did they mention a Crimson Dragon of Rage. Or any sort of Crimson Dragon, really. There were supporter reptiles, but no real dragons.

How could that be? That dragon was a Crimson Beast, so why was it not listed as part of the Crimson Beast deck? Plus, it's power was incredible. Just like Osiris.

Acting a sudden burst of inspiration, Asuka walked over to the back half of the library. This section was shadowed, almost dusty from misuse. No one had visitied this area in a while, except to clean occasionally.

And at the very back of this shadowed area, hidden in a corner was a fenced-off restricted area. Asuka attempted to run her teacher ID through the scanner, but the machine rebuked her command. Words scrolled across the small screen: _anyone wanting to gain access to the restricted area must have an authorized ID, which can be obtained from a consenting administrator._

Asuka cursed quietly under her breath. In this restricted area was information about the Egyptian god cards. Maybe there would be information on this mysterious dragon. But she, a teacher, was denied access to this information. Perhaps Mr. Thompson had the power to allow her to enter this locked vault.

Oh, well. There was information that Asuka could gain as a teacher without a special ID. Asuka hurried out of the library to rush back to her room. She was going to research Marie's past.


	14. Scratching the Surface

Judai's POV, first person

I wandered around the white halls, hoping there was someone who could get me to the nurse's office. That seemed to be too much to wish for, because not a single person was out roaming the halls. This school was too big!

Shadows were growing, and the light from the windows was fading. It was almost the end of the day. I couldn't believe that the exams took that long. Was it really almost nighttime?

Marie groaned occasionally and I looked over at her, but she never woke up. At some point, she broke out in a cold sweat. Her face turned even paler. I was really scared for her when I noticed that.

"Hold on, Marie! I'll get you to the nurse's office. Eventually," I muttered, taking a turn I hoped wasn't leading me further away.

Just when I was about to declare myself hopelessly lost, I saw something move next to Marie. It was the spirit of her Crimson Witch.

"Please help Marie," she pleaded, her ruby-colored eyes tearing up. Her red robes shadowed the rest of her face. "She's under control of that horrible dragon. I don't dare to stay long, he might notice my absence."

"What's the story behind this dragon of her's?" I asked, seizing the opportunity.

"Marie just found him one day, in the trash. She added him to the deck and he seemed kind at first, but then everything changed. He started to control Marie's mind. He told her that all her friends would abandon her, even us, her Crimson beasts. He oppressed us and kept us from trying to reach Marie. She began to believe his lies. Please, you _must_ help her before he does something dangerous."

She faded away as quickly and as quietly as she had come. I didn't even get a chance to ask her for directions! Still, I had gotten some new information.

It took me a few minutes to notice that the halls were lighter, and I looked out the windows to see the sun still high in the sky. What just happened?

When I turned back around, there were people flooding the halls and a door appeared that I was sure wasn't there a few minutes ago. Not only that, but it was the nurse's office that I had been searching for. People were giving me weird looks, but I didn't care. I was still wondering what just happened.

Oh, well. I couldn't worry about that at the moment. I hauled Marie through the crowds to the Nurse's office.

Asuka's POV, second person

So that monster wasn't originally in her deck? The records shown that Marie just found it one day and added it to her deck. After that, there were a lot of weird things that started happening. Her entire attitude would change, and her opponent would recieve real damage. This completely ostracized her from her friends and family and she was sent to the North Duel Academy branch because her parents no longer felt comfortable around their own daughter.

This seemed a lot like Judai's past, but it was also different. And that still didn't answer the question of where that dragon had come from. Looks like she had no choice. Asuka was going to have to request access to that restricted area.


	15. Marie Wakes Up

**This time, I'd like to thank frost2438 and Little White Comet for subscribing and reviewing. Also, Little White Comet has added this story to her favorites, so I'm in a really happy mood right now. **

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Marie's POV, first person

Voices were all around me, making my pounding headache worse. "First Greg and now her!" "Move her over to that cot." "She should rest for a while, but otherwise she'll be fine."

Were they talking about me? My head hurt so bad, I couldn't open my eyes. *fade out*

*fade in*

All was quiet now. My headache was almost gone completely and I felt much better. My eyes flickered open to see Judai not far away, sleeping in a chair by the bed I was on. So I was in the nurse's office, huh? How did I get here?

I sat up and glanced around the room and saw Greg on another cot. Why was he here? It took some effort, but I was able to get up and walk over to his bedside. He was out cold and it looked like he had a fever. Was it because of our duel? I needed to know.

Judai could tell me what exactly happened, so I made my way over to him and shook him awake. He looked at me groggily before registering that I was awake. "Oh, hey Marie, are you feeling better?"

"Yes, but I need you to tell me what happened in my duel with Greg. I blacked out or something in the middle, so I have no idea why Greg is in here or why I blacked out in the first place. You were watching, so you can tell me, right?"

His chocolate brown eyes were filled with concern. "Well, when you called out your dragon, you started acting really weird. And when your dragon attacked, you won the match, but it also caused Greg to collapse for some reason. No one seems to know why."

"Wait, I won?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, yeah. It was a pretty overwhelming win, too."

Then it must've been because Greg collapsed that everyone was giving me looks of hatred. But it wasn't my fault! I wasn't even conscious at the time!

"Anyways," Judai continued, "You were looking really sick when you climbing up the bleachers, so I had to help you to the nurse."

"Is that it?" I demanded.

"That's all anyone knows," he said flatly. That didn't seem like everything, but I could tell he wasn't going to tell me anymore, and at the moment I didn't feel like pressing the issue. My brain was just too tired from thinking all the time. I needed a break.

I flopped back onto my bed and Judai asked if I was alright.

"Yeah, I'm still a little weak, that's all."

"Hey, how about we have a duel? That's what makes me feel better," he suggested.

"Maybe later. Right now, I just want to be alone."

"Okay," Judai said, disappointed. "The nurse said you're free to leave whenever you feel well enough."

He got up, preparing to go to his own room. "Thanks," I called. Judai waved vaguely as he left the room. I laid back on the bed and my thoughts wandered.


	16. Unregistered

Judai's POV, first person

I was chilling out on my bed, trying not to think of everything that went wrong today. All it did was drive me in circle. I felt like a dog chasing its tail. So I pulled out my cards and shuffled through them.

A knock at my door made me jump. I set my cards back into their holster and went to open the door. Asuka stood just outside. Stepping back, I widened the opening so Asuka could come in. Once she was safely in my room, I shut the door.

"I found out that the Crimson Dragon wasn't a part of the Crimson Beast deck," she told me excitedly.

"Yeah, I was told the same thing."

"Marie told you?" she asked, confused.

"Well, no...It was Crimson Witch."

"Anyway, that's not my point. I mean even before it wasn't a part of Marie's deck, it wasn't part of any Crimson Beast deck. Yeah, it might be a Crimson Beast, but it was never a part of that deck. Does that make any sense?"

"No."

"Okay, try imagining it like this. There's a weird Elemental Hero that you found one day that you've never heard of. It is not a part of any Elemental Hero deck ever recorded, but rather seemed to appear out of the blue one day, yet it is definitely an Elemental Hero." I was still confused, but I thought I knew what Asuka was trying to say.

"Are you saying it's possible that this card wasn't made by Industrial Illusions?"

"I'm saying it isn't registered under Industrial Illusions. It's very possible that it was a card that was made by Industrial Illusions, but was never put into production."

Oh, that made sense now.

"And I'm going to see if I can gain permission to enter the restricted section of the library."

"How come?"

"That area contains information about the god cards and a couple of cards that were forbidden for public use. Who knows? Maybe it'll be there. Unfortunately, I can't get into it unless I get permission from the higher-ups."

"They're going to want a reason," I reasoned.

"Yeah, that's the difficult part. I can't just go around telling people about Marie and her dragon. I'd need a good excuse for going into that section, though."

"I'll help you come up with an excuse," I offered.

*TWO HOURS LATER*

"I got nothing," I said, flopping onto a chair.

"Same here," Asuka groaned.

We had tried coming up with a reason that Asuka could use to enter the forbidden section of the library, only to find that it was an impossible task. There wasn't anything we could say that would convince the higher-ups to let Asuka into that area, but there was too much at stake for us to just give up.

I glanced at my alarm clock and saw that it was 7:45. "It's late. I better be going," Asuka sighed, getting to her feet. She was about to let herself out when she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, and your new uniform is coming tomorrow." Oh, yeah. I forgot that I had been wearing the old one ever since I got here. And I never really payed much attention to the other students. Oh well. Guess I was going to see what it looked like tomorrow.


	17. The Eye of the Storm

**Viper here. I want to apologize for not updating for a while. Today, I'm thanking shadowstar92 for adding this story to her favorites. I deleted the second half of this chapter because I still have to figure how the second duel of this story's going to go. Little White Comet suggested some sites to help me out with that, so hopefully I'll figure it out soon. This chapter also doesn't have a POV. I really hope you enjoy it!**

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Judai woke to the sound of knocking the next morning. He shuffled over to the door and sleepily stuck his head out. He didn't see anyone, but there was a package sitting by his door. Hastily written in marker, the word UNIFORM was scrawled on the top of big cardboard box.

Sighing, he bent down to pick it up and went back into his room. He was still tired, so he dropped the box on his bed and collapsed onto the creaky spring matress next to it. Before he could fall back asleep, however, that alarm clock that Judai was sure was cursed shreiked its annoying alarm.

Growling, he got up swept the offending device to the floor and stomped on it comically. It shut off without getting broken, amazingly. "Guess I'm awake now," he said to himself.

He opened up the box of uniforms and found seven red vests, white long-sleeved t-shirts to wear under the vests, and black jeans. This looked awfully familiar...

It bothered Judai because he couldn't remember where he saw this uniform before. He spent several long seconds trying to figure out where it came from. There was one detail that was off, Judai knew, but he couldn't remember what it was. He eventually gave up trying to remember and just shrugged the thought away.

He quickly got dressed and pulled on his boots. Then, he snatched his card holster from the desk it was sitting on and stepped out into the hall. For once, Judai was actually early, something he thought would never happen to him in million years. There were only a few people out and about.

Judai decided to go visit Marie to see if she was okay. She reassured him of her complete recovery by smacking him with a pillow and cussing him out for waking her up early. Her wierd behavior had completely vanished.

They went to class, and even Greg was awake and feeling well enough to attend, even if he kept throwing Marie dirty looks. The other students didn't mention the duel that had injured Greg, and nobody reminded them. Regular classes passed slowly and normal things happened.

And so, everything fell into a kind of lull for a few days. Everyone was back to normal, and it was like the duel between Marie and Greg never happened. Judai slept in class, Asuka lectured him, and Marie spied on the two whenever she could. It had become a kind of routine, and it seemed like the Crimson Dragon was just a bad dream.

But it still lurked on the edges of Judai's and Asuka's minds. They still thought about it, whether they realized it or not. That dragon wasn't something to be forgotten and left alone to grow progressively worse.

It wasn't long before the Crimson Dragon made its second appearance.

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**This was kind of a dull chapter because it's like the calm before the storm. After the next duel, things will pick up again. I personally can't really stand being boring for long, so more interesting things will happen after this.**


	18. Marie Goes off the Deep End

**Hello again! Quick explanation. Marie's fairy calls lower-level monster from the deck or her hand, which I should've added in somewhere, but really couldn't make it fit with all that's going on in this chapter. I also would like to thank heartbreakerninja for favoriting this story and for reviewing.**

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Marie got herself into another duel, this time with a Ra Yellow student named Tom Ovell. It was a recreational duel, so only Judai was around to watch it from the sidelines because he happened to be walking with Marie at the time of the challenge. They were dueling in the school's back garden, and a cool fall wind was biting the air. Marie pulled her jacket a bit closer to her as she turned on her duel disk.

"My draw!" Tom said, pulling a card from the top of his deck. "I play Phantom Poltergeist (lv.1/atk:100/def:400) in attack mode. I also lay down two face downs and end my turn."

_Why do all of Marie's opponents have dead decks?_ Judai wondered, sweat-dropping.

"My turn, draw!" Marie called quickly, as if in a rush. "I play Crimson Panther (lv.3/atk:700/def:400) in attack mode. She attacks your Poltergeist with Razor Claw Slash. Panther, exorcise his ghost!"

"I play my trap, Poltergeist's Play!" Tom cried, revealing the card with a wave of his hand. "This permant trap card allows my Poltergeist to control one monster on the field once it is attacked. The controlled monster is under my control until the end of the game, or until this card is destroyed. There is also another case, but I think I will enjoy you finding out on your own."

"That can't be good," Judai muttered to himself, shuffling his feet in the orange leaves to warm up a bit.

"Now," Tom continued. "Continue your attack on your own master. Attack with Razor Claw Slash!" The red cat spun as the poltergeist faded out, the panther apparently now controlled by the ghost. It growled, bounded right towards Marie, and raised its diamond-colored claws for a harsh slice.

Marie collapsed to her knees as the unforgiving claws made contact. "Bastard," she muttered as she struggled back to her feet. "How dare you make Crimson Panther turn against me? I place one card face down and end my turn."

**Marie (LP: 3300)**

**Tom (LP: 4000)**

"My turn. I draw! I choose not to add anything to my field right now, but I will have your monster attack you directly again."

"I'm sorry, Panther," Marie apologized quietly. Then added louder, "I play my trap, Blood Haze. This destroys the attacking monster." The panther dissolved, leaving the Poltergeist in its place.

"It seems like you forgot about my poltergeist!" Tom said, annoyed that the Crimson Panther was destroyed. "Phantom Poltergeist, attack her directly with Ghostly Fury."

The transparent monster dove forward and went right through Marie, knocking down her lifepoints to 3200.

"I end my turn," Tom told her smugly.

"Good, my turn." Marie pulled a card from the top of her deck. "I activate the spell card Fusion, fusing my Crimson Witch and my Crimson Fairy to bring out Crimson Wiccen of Fate (lv.6/atk:1700/def:1800) in attack mode! Wiccen, attack his ghost and destroy it once and for all!"

Judai noticed Tom smirking and shuddered. He knew that Tom was planning something, and it wasn't anything good for Marie.

"Poltergeist, control that hot-headed Wiccen!" Tom laughed. "You don't listen well, do you? I told you that this was a permanent trap, which means that it'll take effect again and again." Marie gave him a look mean enough to freeze hell, which somehow only made Tom laugh harder. "What, did you think that destroying your precious kitty-cat would destroy the effects of the card? How naive! Your cat was destroyed in vain!"

The more Tom opened his mouth, the more Judai started to hate this guy. Cowardly turning beasts on their owners was definitely not something Judai would ever take lightly.

"Wiccen, attack Marie's lifepoints directly!" The Crimson Wiccen brought up her knobbly wooden staff and viciously swiped it at Marie. Marie clutched her side in pain.

"I throw one card face down and end my turn," Marie said through clenched teeth.

Tom drew a card. "Wiccen, attack again!"

"I play the trap card Negate Attack!" Marie wheezed, revealing the card.

"You're not a problem," Tom sneered. "You're all talk. I will win this duel without a fight."

**Marie (LP:1500)**

**Tom (LP:4000)**

"Oh, yeah?" Marie mumbled, her hair shadowing her face. Her voice spat out the words like a poison. She raised her head, revealing hate-filled eyes. "My turn! Draw!" A small smile split her wan face. "Prepare yourself, Tom. From here on out, you're going to have to fight to even stay on the field for one more turn. I hope you're up to the challenge."

"I activate the spell card Pot of Greed!" Marie drew two more cards. "Perfect," she crowed, sounding a bit mad. "I play the field spell Rose Garden of Remembrance. Surely you remember what it does right? I bring back my Crimson Fairy (lv.4/def:1650/atk:3000) in defense mode by its effect, raising her attack and defense points threefold."

A warm gust of air rushed over the duelists and to Judai, who gave a small jolt at the sudden change.

"I also activate her effect, calling two more lower level monsters to my field. I call forth Crimson Flame Fox (lv.2/def:600/atk:400) in defense mode, and Crimson Pheonix (lv.3/def:1500/atk:600) in defence mode, whom I sacrifice to bring back my Crimson Panther (lv.4/def:400/atk:700) and is then re-summoned to the field! I now sacrifice both my Pheonix and my Panther to summon my ultimate dragon, the Crimson Dragon of Rage(lv.7/atk:?/def:2600)!"

The Crimson Pheonix and Panther disappeared and in their place came the monster of a dragon with two heads. It roared with anger at the defiant duelist standing against it. Its tail whipped back and forth, as if waiting to rip the puny human apart. The Crimson Pheonix returned to the field again.

"Now, due to its effect, the levels of all my monster combined multiplied by a thousand determine my dragon's attack points. My fairy is a level four, my fox is a level two, and my pheonix is a level three, bringing my dragon's attack points to 9000!" Marie practically hissed, her eyes definitely turning a hazy shade of red. This detail was not missed by Judai, but Tom remained oblivious to Marie's loss of control. "Then I activate my fox's effect. I can add his attack points to my dragon's for one turn, bringing its attack up to 9400!"

"You don't get it do you?" Tom said, looking a bit amused. "As soon as you attack with that dragon, I'll use my Poltergeist's Play to gain control of it and obliterate you."

"It seems you're the one that doesn't get it," Marie cackled, finally shaking Tom. "My dragon is not affected by monster and card effects, which means your precious Poltergeist's Play does not work, meaning you're wiped completely off the field!" The setting sun's light seemed to dim suddenly and another rush of sudden heat blasted over the three.

Tom paled and backed away a few steps. He looked like he was about to forfeit, but that wasn't Marie's plan. "Crimson Dragon of Rage, blast away this piece of trash with Vengeful Justice!"

"Don't do it, Marie!" Judai called out, running to stop Marie, but it was too little too late.

The dragon opened its hated maws wide and a black-colored blast struck Tom and the controlled Wiccen with so much force that Tom went flying like a leaf in hurricane and smacked into a small tree, knocking him out cold.

Marie wobbled a bit, the red haze in her eyes fading as she groaned. Then she toppled forward, completely unconscious too.

Judai checked on Tom and found that he was bleeding from the back of his head, but he was still alive, for now at least. Marie was next, and she was just exhausted, but not in any danger at the moment.

All signs of the dragon was gone, but Judai knew that he could wait no longer. He had to find out about that Crimson dragon and he suddenly thought of a way to do it, despite his misgivings about it.

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**Can anyone guess what Judai's going to do? Anyway, Marie went off the deep end a tad. ^_^' Didn't mean to make it go that far, but whatever. **


	19. A Dreaded Phone Call

**Hello, Viper again. As you can see, I'm back to POV's at least for the next couple of chapters, but there's another one without a POV coming soon too. I think Judai gets out of character a lot here. I hope it's not as bad as I think, but I feel his personality slipping away. I promise to try to fix that after this chapter. I kind of need him serious for this one. Anyway, today is many thanks to GrayWitch13 for favoriting this story. I really hope you continue to enjoy this story. =) **

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Judai's POV, first person

It was a hectic hour before I found myself in my room, staring up at a small red cell phone with dread. I didn't want to use it, but what choice did I have? I had to find out about that Crimson Dragon. But still...

I hadn't Asuka about what I was going to do, otherwise she might make it worse for me. I didn't want to involve anyone else, but I didn't have a choice anymore. I flipped open the phone and went to my contacts menu. There was only one number in there: Austin O'Brien. I stopped before hitting the call button.

Pharaoh appeared from the rafters in my room and mewled loudly, as if he and Professor Daitokuji were encouraging me to go through with the call. I sighed, gathering my courage, and pressed the green button.

As the phone was ringing, I sat up, desperately hoping that O'Brien had tossed his old cell phone or that he just wouldn't pick up.

Much to my surprise, he picked up on the second ring. "Only one person knows this number, but he hasn't called in seven years. This had better not be a prank."

I chuckled. He was still his suspicious self. "Unfortunately not," I answered.

"Judai? I thought you died somewhere! How could you just jump off the charts for seven years?"

I chose not to answer. Besides, I had more important things to do. "Look," I said forcefully, ending the subject of my disappearance. "I need you to do something for me."

"Yeah, sure thing Judai," Austin said, sensing my unease.

"There have been disturbances due to a certain card at a dueling school. I need you to patch me through to Hayato Maeda at the Card Developing department of Industrial Illusions so I can ask him about it."

"Give me one second to hack into the communcations system, then you'll be good to go. But Judai..." he trailed off. "Nevermind."

There was some static as O'Brien forced his way into the Industrial Illusions phone lines. A few seconds later, he came back onto the phone. "You're on. Make it quick, though, otherwise you'll be kicked back off. The defenses on the phones are crazy."

A different voice entered the conversation. "Who is this? You shouldn't be able to reach this number."

"Hey, Hayato, it's Judai."

"Yuki Judai? I heard that no one's talked to you in like, ten years. Where have you been?" I couldn't resist groaning in frustration. Was I going to hear that every time?

"I don't have time to talk about it Hayato. I was calling because I need a favor."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to look up a card called the Crimson Dragon of Rage. There's nothing about the card on any books about the Crimson beast deck, and I was told that it may not be registered."

"Being like, the Head of Card Development/Design should allow me to search the files without a problem. I should be able to find something in a few days. Why are you, like, so interested in this card?"

"I really don't want to answer that, but I promise I'm not asking to mess around," I promised, putting as much force as possible behind my words. Hayato wasn't used to me being serious and didn't ask about the dragon or my disappearance anymore. He only paused to ask for my number so he could contact me on the information before hanging up.

I was exhausted just from that conversation. I dropped the phone onto the bed next to me and collapsed back onto the comforting mattress. My eyes closed and I gradually drifted to sleep.


	20. Lies Born from an Ugly Truth

Marie's POV, first person

I woke up to find myself in the infirmary again. It was dark, only lit by the dim yellow lights overhead. It hurt to sit up, and I felt sore all over. I didn't remember anything past the middle of my duel with Tom. After that, it was all a blank.

The room was empty, the nurse once again not present. My only roommate was the unconscious Tom. The silence was freaking me out, so I forced myself to my feet and stumbled to the door.

It seemed to take me forever to reach my room. I had to stop several times and take deep breaths. I almost hurled, my head spun so much. A black fog seemed to closing in around me, I couldn't see. I could feel myself start to panic before I heard my dragon's voice telling me to calm down.

"You're almost to your room," he soothed. His deep voice was filled with concern and I immediately felt a rush of gratitude towards him. How could I cope without him? My kind dragon directed me to my room through my haze and I barely staggered into the room before collapsing onto the carpeted floor in exhaustion.

Eventually my vision began to clear and I could see the translucent vision of my dragon bending over me. "Are you feeling better?" Crimson Dragon asked, his reptilian-pupiled red eyes narrowed with worry.

"Yeah, thank you," I said weakly, sitting up. "What happened to me?"

"I saw the whole thing," my dragon assured me. "Are you sure you want to hear it?" I nodded. "In your duel against Tom, Judai rendered you unconscious using the power of a duel spirit residing in his soul, one named Yubel."

I couldn't believe it. "Judai wouldn't do that. Besides, he can't have a duel spirit inside of him. That's impossible, right?" Judai may not have been close, but he was a friend of mine; he wouldn't do something like this, right?

"I assure you, it's true," Crimson Dragon continued. "I didn't want to believe it either, but that foul deceiver could fool anyone with his childish manner. He used Yubel's power to knock you out, then attacked Tom. Of course, then he played the innocent worried friend and got the teachers. He told them that you were the one that nearly killed Tom, spun lies to make him look completely innocent of his crime. His accomplice, that teacher Asuka Tenjouin, helped him spread the rumor."

"No, no." I whispered, nearly in complete shock. It was like those years before the North Duel Academy. I couldn't handle going through this again. My friends couldn't abandon me like the ones from the first time. I wanted to cry. I didn't want to deal with this again.

"They did, whether you accept it or not. Besides, have you forgotten that Judai is a suspicious person who hasn't aged in ten years? Do you know what he did to his friends and to other people? That boy is a sly, back-stabbing bastard.

"When he and his friends were transported to another dimension due to some unclear circumstances, Yuki Judai turned on his friends and viciously killed them, hungry for power. He dissolved them into nothing, and it wasn't long before he took control of the whole dimension. 'Supreme King Judai' was his title and he commanded a whole army of evil duel monsters. He sent many people to the stars in his short reign."

I gasped in horror. To think that anyone was capable of doing something so terrible was beyond me. And I believed him to be a friend, a kind person. Hot tears threatened to run. Another 'friend' had betrayed me.

"He originally was opposed by his duel spirit Yubel, but she lost to him and Judai controlled her by combining her spirit with his. So now she follows his every order, controlled like a doll on strings."

It was too much to take. I buried my head in my arms and stopped listening. Crimson Dragon stayed silent, sensing my distress was at the breaking point.

Quiet tears rolled down my cheeks. They eventually lead me drift off to sleep with my dragon-my only friend-standing guard at my side.


	21. A Trace

Hayato searched through the files on his computer, a bit bored and hungry. The rest of the building was dark; he was the only one left in the entire building besides some janitors. Each file search was ending up as fruitless as the first. He was about to give it up for the night.

What if this card wasn't even real? It could've been a prank call from someone pretending to be Judai. Afterall, it had been several years since Hayato had even talken to Judai, and he could barely even remember what Judai's voice sounded like. Hayato could've just been wasting his time on a card that doesn't even exist.

He leaned back in his chair and thought a bit. There wasn't a single hit on the card search, and there should've been at least one by now, even if it was just a trace of a deleted file. Even the god cards were accessable as long as someone had the correct authorization, and Hayato had all the passcodes.

Still, Judai sounded pretty urgent over the phone. It really didn't sound like a prank call, and the voice sounded the like the voice that Hayato remembered. However, Judai was never as serious as when he was talking to Hayato that afternoon. Maybe that just proves it was a different person on the phone.

Hayato sighed and shut down his computer for the night. He didn't want to think of it anymore. Maybe he would search a little more tomorrow before giving up on the project altogether.

*time skip*

Hayato walked in from his lunchtime break, bread crumbs from a grilled cheese still around his mouth. He wiped them away vaguely as he plopped back into his rolling chair and woke up his computer. The green screen came up with a search engine box at the top, where Hayato typed "Crimson Dragon of Rage" into the little box for perhaps the fiftieth time that day.

As usual, the NO FILES FOUND message was flashed across the screen. But Hayato thought he saw something just before the words appeared. Curious, he tried it again. Yes, for just a brief second, there was definitely a link that appeared, but then disappeared.

He tried several more times, but the link never stayed for over a couple of milliseconds. Hayato wondered if it was a bug and decided to inform Mr. Pegasus.

He got up and walked out of his office. It was a short walk to reach Mr. Pegasus' office, as it was just down the hall. The doors slid open silently as Hayato walking on a conversation between Sho Marufuji and Mr. Pegasus. Sho was trying to convince Pegasus to organize another dueling competition, but Pegasus told him there weren't any opportunities. Sho silenced all of his arguments as he noticed Hayato. He pushed past Hayato as he left in a huff.

Pegasus looked slightly stressed, but tried to stay up-beat like he always was. "Hayato-boy! What brings you here?"

"I think there's, like, a bug in the computer systems, sir. One of the files isn't showing up; it keeps disappearing after, like, less than a second."

"And what file might that be?" Pegasus wondered, leaning forward onto his elbows. His silver hair shifted a bit, but never uncovered the hidden eye underneath.

"The Crimson Dragon of Rage, sir." The eccentric American paled and his visible eye widened.

"Wh-where did you hear of that card?" he asked, voice shaking. "No one should even know about that file. I made sure to wipe every trace of it years ago."

Hayato was shocked. Just what had Judai found? It had to be something terrifying.

"What is it?"

Pegasus hesitated for a long time before explaining. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Around the same time I was in Egypt and discovered the three Egyptian god cards, there was another tablet. It was locked away in a hidden room that was connected to the room containing the god cards.

"It seemed like a lot like the Slifer the Sky Dragon, but it itself did not have a name. The dark power coming off the tablet could almost be felt and seen, that was how thick it was. The defenses in that room were even harder to bypass than in a pharaoh's tomb. I wanted to get away from it, but I could only stare.

"I was eventually pulled away from it, and the tablet never left the tomb, but the beast never left my mind. I simply couldn't resist creating the card. It wasn't an option. It was as if I was possessed by a devil. Day and night, every hour, I couldn't stop.

"Once I was done, it was like I woke up from a nightmare and I realized what I had created. An evil aura like no other was coming off the card in waves. I had awakened something dangerous, and I wanted to fix my mistake by destroying the wretched thing, but every time I tried to get rid of it, there was some force that stopped me from doing so.

"So the only option left to me was to lock it away in an impenetrable vault and destroyed all records of it. It was called the Crimson Dragon of Rage because you could feel the anger coming off the card. I believe it was due to the fact that the card never was named and never accepted as one of the gods, but that's just a guess. Now answer my question: where did you hear about this card? Nobody should know about it, I was the only one who ever saw it."


	22. A Harsh Reminder

It was a few days after the incident with Tom, and Marie was still acting weird towards Judai. He couldn't figure out why, did the dragon's control affect her mind? She wouldn't talk to Judai _or_ Asuka.

Tom never left the infirmary and rumors began to spread about Marie. Was that the reason she was acting weird? She grew even more anti-social and barely left her room, even for class.

Judai decided to ditch class one day to go and visit her in her dorm room. He knocked lightly on her door. His reward was a shout for him to go away and leave her alone. He chose to ignore that and knocked again until Marie decided to open the door.

When Marie saw who was bothering her, she paled and tried to slam the door shut, but Judai caught it. "Why are you avoiding everyone?" he asked.

Marie thought he sounded sincere, but then thought of all the horrible things he did. "It's you I'm avoiding, you and that sly bitch Asuka!" She spat out the words with as much venom as possible.

Judai jerked back, surprised at Marie's sudden hatred. "What did we do?" he asked curiously, concerned, but not angry.

"Oh, you just act like you're so innocent. You act like you've never killed anyone. Well, I know everything. You killed several innocent people, you've betrayed your friends and ruled over a whole seperate demension as a harsh emperor. And Asuka...she knows all about it, but she defends you and even helps you! You're the worst scum to ever live. How can you live with yourself? Your friends trusted you and you betrayed them. I trusted you."

Judai was too shocked to move for a few seconds. How did she know? She knew everything, voiced every thought that had crossed his mind since he had been the Supreme King. But apparently that wasn't all Marie had to say.

"And I know you control a poor duel spirit, you force her to lend you her power so you can stay young forever and commit crimes. I will find a way to expose you, and when I do, I'll be sure to tell everyone in the whole world so everyone knows what a monster you are. You can be sure of that!"

What was she talking about? Before Judai could ask, Marie shoved him backwards and successfully slammed the door shut.

He stood in the middle of the hall dumbly for a few seconds, just staring at the unforgiving wooden door in front of him. How did she know about what happened in the other dimension? It was a relatively well-kept secret and only the people who were directly involved knew the whole story.

Suddenly Judai didn't feel so well, either. He shambled back to his room and just laid down on the bed, trying not to think.


	23. A Call from Pegasus

**Sorry for the delay everyone and many thanks for the reviews! The characters might be OOC in this chapter, but I'm trying to keep them as characterized as possible.**

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Judai's POV, first person

Where did Marie find out all that stuff? Was it her dragon? It was like Marie was trying to kill me with her words, and it almost seemed to work. Despite how many years had passed, I still hated myself for all that I did.

Yubel showed up for a short while, trying to cheer me up.

"Yubel?" I asked, my voice shaking a bit.

"Yes, Judai?"

"Nevermind."

"What is it?"

"Do I use your powers for selfish needs?"

"Judai, you are making no sense. Of course you don't. You are not selfish; everything you do is to help others."

I stayed silent after that, and Yubel eventually faded away. Marie's words wouldn't stop echoing through my head, and it was watching a reoccuring nightmare.

I rolled over onto my side and stared at the white walls. I don't know how long I was laying there when my cell phone rang. It scared me so much that it broke my depression and drove my head into the wall from surprise.

Rubbing my head and groaning, I swiped the red phone from my desk and flipped it open.

"Hello?" I said, expecting Hayato to tell me about the Crimson Dragon. I definitely was not expecting Maximillian Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters.

"Is this Yuki Judai?" he demanded.

"Y-yes," I answered.

"Tell me exactly how you know about the Crimson Dragon."

I had no other choice but to explain everything to him. There was silence for a while. "That's impossible. The Crimson Dragon should be locked up in a vault here in Industrial Illusions."

"It must be possible, because I've seen it. If it was locked up in some vault, then how could I have known about it? Check to see if I'm lying."

Pegasus sighed in defeat. "Unfortunately, I already have. There's no sign of the missing card, and it's imperative that I get it back and lock it away for good!"

"What exactly is the Crimson Dragon, Mr. Pegasus?" I asked. Mr. Pegasus told me the story of how he found the unnamed god in hidden room and what happened after.

I couldn't believe it. The dragon was basically a forgotten god card? One that no one knew about?

Pegasus went on to say, "But we can't just storm the school and take back the card. That dragon is too powerful and cunning to just take by force. It'll just take out its rage on everyone.

"To safely remove it, the dragon would have to drained of its power. In other words, it must be defeated in a duel. The best way to make sure of that is to hold a tournament at the academy. The semi-final and final rounds will have the ante law lifted. Whoever has the Crimson Dragon is sure to reach the final rounds, so we could enforce an ante to take the card the second that the duel is over."

"What if whoever is facing her loses?" I asked skeptically. "Better yet, how are you going to convince the school board to allow the ante rule?"

"Oh, it is simple enough to convince them to agree to the ante. And as for the possibility of the person with the Crimson Dragon winning, we just have to make sure that won't happen, now won't we?" Pegasus said, recovering his old wit.

"When are you planning to hold this tournament?" I wondered.

"Why, as soon as possible, of course!" Pegasus said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No more than a few days, and I'll have arranged to hold the competition at North Academy. All I need you to do is to stay in the tournament and keep an eye on that dragon. I want you to tell me if you see any more activity."

"Will do," I answered, snapping the phone shut.

And true to his word, an announcement was held a few days later after last period.


	24. The Return of a Pro

**For this chapter, I did use the tournament idea from the manga. It's pretty much the same, just different people in a different place. **

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Marie's POV, first person

I heard Mr. Thompson's voice as he ordered an assembly in one of the homerooms over the intercom. I wondered vaguely what is was for as I followed the crowds. At one point, I thought I saw Judai moving through the crowds, but he was gone a second later, leaving me to wonder if I really saw him or not.

Then again, what did I care? Judai was a lying bastard, and there was no way that I wanted to talk to him ever again. The kids that were walking around me seemed to give me a wide berth and whispered as they moved past. I gritted my teeth and ignored it. This was all Judai's fault, after all, not mine. Not that anyone would believe me if I told them.

But it was a mystery as to why there was an assembly today. The only time there were assemblies held during the year was if there was something important about to happen.

I followed the flow of kids to aforementioned homeroom.

Once all the students were squeezed into the big room, it was a few minutes before the announcement was made. There were whispers and uneasy murmurs running through the crowd. I heard a couple of conversations.

"What do you think this is about?" "Do you think that we're in trouble for something?" "No, no. If we were in trouble, then why is the whole school here?" "Maybe there's going to be an award for something." "Have you heard anything?" "Does anyone know what's going on?"

I glanced around, to see if it looked like there was anyone in the room who might have a clue. Even the teachers looked confused. There was only one person in the room who didn't look surprised. Judai.

At least he was on the other side of the room. It wouldn't surprise me if he had a hand in this himself. That creep seemed to somehow have a lot of power, and I didn't just mean from Yubel.

Oh, well. I supposed I'd find out what this little charade was all about when Mr. Thompson told us. Speak of the devil, he came into the front of the room and told us all to quiet down. It was a long time before anyone shut up.

Mr. Thompson waited patiently for all the nervous muttering to die out. Once it did, he spoke. "Students! I know you're all wondering why you're here, and I assure you that you'll like the reason once you hear it. A pro duelist had returned to this school!"

There was a lot of deafening clapping and cheers at that. I did some clapping, all right. Over my ears. Still, I couldn't deny that I was excited to know that a pro was coming back to the school. I glanced over to the other side of the room. Judai looked slightly surprised, but not much. Apparently he didn't know about this little part of the plan.

"Everyone, please give a warm welcome back to...Johan Andersen!" Mr. Thompson announced, sweeping his arm behind him. Silence.

"Um, where is Mr. Andersen?" Mr. Thompson asked.

"Righ' *huff* here, Mr. Thompson!" someone panted. We all looked to the door behind us to see a familiar blue-haired guy. We all knew him: the unstoppable pro duelist with the Gem Beast deck. I snapped a look over to Judai.

It was oddly satisfying to see a sick look wash across his face. He looked really nervous now. Good. Maybe Johan knew him in the past and could expose Judai for the monster he truly was.

"Man," Johan continued, interrupting my thoughts. "It's been so darn long since I've been here, I just plum forgot how to get around," he said, laughing. Johan really seemed like a teenager. He didn't look older than any of us, and he didn't act like he was either. That was just a part of his charm, I guess.

Everyone gave him space to walk down, and Judai somehow got pushed to the edge. As Johan happily made his way down the aisle, it was impossible to miss Judai. Just as Johan reached him, Judai tried to sneak away, but it only drew Johan's attention.

The way Judai was acting, I thought that Johan was going to say something, but Johan just snapped a quick glance at Judai before hurrying to his spot next to Mr. Thompson. He seemed happy for some reason after seeing that snake. Was he friends with Judai, too?

"Anyway," Mr. Thompson continued as if nothing was wrong, "In celebration for the return of Mr. Andersen, a special tournament will be held here, at this academy. Everyone has to preticipate, but I don't think that any of you will begrudge the chance to show your skill, right? Whoever wins in the final rounds gets the honor to duel against Mr. Andersen!" There were a lot of cheers at that, and I completely forgot my hatred against Judai in that moment.

I was too excited about getting the chance to duel a pro to worry about a kid that should be nearly thirty now. I clapped and cheered along with rest.

"The tournament starts as of tomorrrow, and classes shall be suspended while tournament is held," Mr. Thompson continued, earning more cheers from the crowd of students. "I suggest you all get your decks in order today. All matches are elimination. You may choose who you wish to duel, but must duel once a day in order to stay in the competition. Simple enough?"

Yells of agreement were inaudible through all the excited chattering that was going on. Mr. Thompson just took it as a yes and dismissed all the students. Kids flooded the halls and bled out in separate directions to their rooms. A good chunk of kids were heading for the campus card shop at the other end of the school. I noticed as I left that Judai kind of hung back in the room. I didn't care much, just went to dorm to prepare my deck.


	25. Suspicion Rising

Mr. Thompson saw that the new student, Judai, hung back after the rest of the kids instead of racing off to practice for the tournament. After the rest of the kids drained out of the room, Judai finally left.

Shaking his head, Mr. Thompson turned to Johan. "So, Mr. Andersen. It's great to see you again. What made you decide to return now?"

"Ah, I was jus' missin' the good ole academy," the pro answered, smiling nervously and scratching at his blue hair. The principal knew that Johan was lying through his teeth, but decided not to press the issue. He also thought it was suspicious that Johan requested a room right next to Judai's.

There was something fishy going on. Judai shows up, apparently not having aged a single year since he graduated from Duel Academy; a Duel Monsters dragon was suddenly dealing real damage to its opponents, and Johan Andersen just spontaneously decides to come back to North Academy after ten years of being a pro duelist.

Even more suspicious was the fact that Johan Andersen didn't seem to be any older than when Mr. Thompson last saw him, either. It was just like with Judai, but no one found Mr. Andersen suspicious because he was a pro duelist and pros always seem to have an immortal image.

But Johan was backed by Industrial Illusions. Mr. Pegasus himself ordered the tournament, and agreed with Johan's living arrangements. There was nothing Mr. Thompson could say or do when Industrial Illusions ordered something.

He dismissed the awkward Johan and went to his office. Suddenly feeling very tired, he swiped up a coffee pot, but there wasn't a single drop inside. Sighing, Mr. Thompson walked over to the small refridgerator behind his desk a pulled out a soda.

He popped open the can and swallowed about half of the caffenated drink before slowing. That's when he remembered Mary. Thompson wondered if she found out anything about Judai that might help him figure out what was going on.


	26. A Chance for Revenge

**Hello! Before the chapter, I wanna thank seanyboy1976 for following this story.**

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Marie's POV, first person

There was a knock on my door when I was in the middle of going through my deck. I set my deck down, feeling annoyed that there was someone bothering me when I needed to prepare for the start of the tournament tomorrow.

I opened the door and stuck my head out impatiently. Miss Tenjouin was the one who interrupted me. I also remembered that she was a close friend to Judai too. That didn't exactly put me into a good mood.

"Yes?" I asked, a bit rudely.

"Mr. Thompson wants to see you in his office," she answered, apparently oblivious to my tone.

"Thank you," I said tartly. "I'll be there in just a second." I turned and gathered my cards up from the floor before pushing past my former favorite teacher. She still didn't say anything as she walked in the opposite direction to her own room.

A few minutes later, I found myself standing in front of my principal's desk as he stared intensely at me. It kinda creeped me out, so I asked nervously, "You asked for me, Mr. Thompson?"

"Yes," he started. He sounded anxious. "Do you remember how I asked for you to keep on an eye on Mr. Yuki?"

"Yes sir," I answered, not entirely sure where he was going with this.

"Well, have you found out anything?" Mr. Thompson asked suddenly, scaring me a bit. He looked like he was really scared about something. I wondered what. I also seriously considered telling Mr. Thompson everything thing I knew.

This was my chance for revenge! Judai would get exposed for the monster he was. Everyone would know the horrible things he did. And all I had to do was just to tell Mr. Thompson everything like I was originally told to.

"Mr. Thompson, I..."

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**Cliffhangers! Mwhahahahaha! **

**My updates have been slow, I know, sorry. Plz don't throw books at me... I'm just currently working on other projects, slightly original stories that I got from watching/reading other things. ^^' Anyways, the next chapter's coming soon. Actually, this chapter was going to be longer, but I thought where I left it off was a pretty good cliffhanger and couldn't resist posting it like this instead. I'm going to post the next chapter soon, but probably not tonight.**


	27. Marie's Answer

Marie's POV, continued

"...haven't heard anything suspicious. Judai seems to be an otherwise normal student," I concluded. Surprised? I was a bit, too. But I knew why I didn't say anything. What I wanted was real revenge.

I wanted the feeling of revealing Judai's secret myself and causing him as much pain as possible in the process. If I just gave the secret away, where'd be the fun in that? Mr. Thompson might spread the word, and it might get around the school, but I wanted to make Judai suffer the ultimate humiliation by my hand. I wanted the whole _world_ to know Judai's secret. And I had an idea of just how to do it.

Knowing Pegasus like I did, nearly every competition ever ordered by him were broadcast across the whole world. If I could just force him to use Yubel's powers in the middle of a match, then I could expose him for the monster he was.

But it couldn't just be a beginner's match. Those weren't important enough. It had to be in one of the final matches.

"Better enjoy the competition while you can Judai," I muttered as I stalked the halls on the way back to my room. "Because when we meet in the final round, it'll be a living hell."

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**This chapter is so short, I know. I just figured I better get this chapter out there so you're not in suspense for too long.**


	28. Reunion Between Friends

**By popular vote, this story's staying as straight as an arrow. No boy-on-boy stuff. I'm actually really happy that everyone voted the same thing. That way, no one's mad... Anyway, thanks for all the opinions. =) ****Also, I would really like to thank frost2438 for coming up with an amazing idea that I'm going to use, but I won't say what it is, 'cause that'd be spoilers, now wouldn't it? Now for my usual thank you to animeluver64, who has favorited this story. Oh, and I probably should've done this a few chapters ago, but I'm pushing the rating up to T from here on out, because it turns out Marie can have some colorful language. Plus there's going to be anime/duel monsters violence later on. And now, back to the story.**

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Judai sat on the floor of his room, staring blankly at his cards without really seeing them. He was too busy thinking about just how far out of control things had gone to go over his strategies for the competition tomorrow. All Judai had really wanted was a quiet school life.

No reminders of his past, and definitely not another looming disaster that he had to take care of. It was fun back in Duel Academia for a while, but when it all went south, dueling kind of lost its appeal. It wasn't fun when the stakes were the lives of his friends and he was losing. It was a long time before Judai learned to have fun while dueling again. And now the past was coming back to haunt him.

There was another threat on another duel academy, and Judai was getting more innocent people involved. He wished that he could just give it up sometimes. Not dueling of course, but saving the world. It got really tiring and Judai was sick of it. But he knew that there was no way that he could just ignore what was going on. If he just walked away, then even more people would get hurt.

A light knock came at the door and Judai was thinking about ignoring it before it came again, slightly more insistent. Judai reluctantly got to his feet and went to see who it was. "Hey, there pal!" Johan Andersen chirped happily, giving Judai a smile and a little wave. His face got serious when he got a good look at his friend. "Ya look awful, Judai. I though' you might be lookin' forward to the tournament tomorrow. Somethin' the matter?"

"Not really," Judai lied.

"Ya sure?" Johan asked, not convinced. Judai nodded, which still didn't convince Johan, but he didn't press the issue. "Can I come in? I'm supposed to give ya a message from Pegasus."

"Yeah, sure, come on in," Judai said, sounding a bit surprised. He backed up to give Johan space enter the room and closed the door once he was inside.

"Sure brings back memories, don' it?" Johan laughed a bit as he dropped onto the matress. He looked up to the rafters and saw a familiar fat tabby sitting on one of the beams. "Ha, even good ole Pharaoh's here. How'd ya get him in?"

"He snuck in by himself," Judai answered, chuckling. "When I opened up my backpack, he's just sitting on my stuff, completely at home. I dunno what he does when I'm in class. He seems pretty happy though." It wasn't the truth, but it was close enough.

"So why did you disappear for ten years, Judai?" Johan asked suddenly, getting to the question that Judai had become sick of hearing.

"You said you had a message from Pegasus, right?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"It can wait," Johan told him adamantly. "First tell me why no one's heard from ya in so long."

"Can't you tell just by looking?" Judai snapped, earning him a startled look from Johan, but he didn't care at the moment. "Don't you think it might just be a little hard to explain why I haven't gotten any older after graduation?"

"In case ya hadn't noticed, I haven't exactly gotten any older myself, Judai!" Johan yelled back. This caused Judai to notice that his friend looked exactly the same as he did when he attended Duel Academia. Johan's voice dropped a bit as he continued, "And I made a perfectly fine future for myself. Besides, ya still coulda told us. I'm always gonna be yer best bud, Judai. And I know that everyone else still woulda been right by ya too."

Judai didn't have an answer to that. He already knew that his friends wouldn't have cared if he stayed the same old Judai he'd always been, but he just couldn't handle another reminder of just how different he was from them. It brought back bad memories that Judai would rather forget.

He attempted to change the subject again to break the awkward silence that had settled over them. "So what did you want to tell me?"

Johan sighed. "Pegasus wanted me ta tell ya what exactly he's planned up. I know about the Crimson Dragon already. That's why I'm here. The plan is ta get me ta come back here, which will cause a duelin' competition to start in celebration of my return. You try ta reach the final rounds, and Marie's sure ta be there too, since she has the Crimson Dragon ta back her up. Ya beat her, and the card is returned to safe hands through the ante rule placed on the final rounds. If by any chance you can't beat her, then I get a crack at 'er.

"That pretty much sums it up, but he did say ta keep an eye out for any new activity from that card throughout the competition. If ya do see anything, ya report it ta me, and I call Pegasus ta tell him what happened."

"With something so important, you'd think he'd be here."

"He wanted ta be, but there was a problem with his private jet and only I was flown over instead. He should be here in time for the finals with Sho."

"Why does Sho need to come?" Judai wondered, inwardly groaning at the thought of getting bombarded with questions and lectures again.

"Why, that's cause he's the one who organizes all the duelin' competitions for Industrial Illusions!" Johan replied, as if he was stating something horribly obvious. He chuckled. "He's grown up quite a bit, too. Ya wouldn't believe how much he bragged when he grew a few inches. And now, as a sign to show that he's older, he's upgraded to _square_ glasses."

Judai cracked up. "Yeah, that sure sounds like Sho." He sat down on the floor and gathered his cards. "You up for a game?"

"Of course, pal, I'm always up for a good duel!" Johan said, Ruby Carbuncle appearing at his shoulder.

Hane Kuriboh showed up by Judai, crying out a challenge.

"Let's duel!"

* * *

**So, whaddaya think? I tried to do my best with Johan's accent.**

**If Judai and Johan were too OOC, then let me know please. Sometimes, ya can't tell when you're writing. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and the next chapter will be getting into the competition.**


	29. The Fire Deck

**Heya, competition day! I'm excited, aren't you? We finally get to see Judai in action, hurray! (Clearly, I had way too much sugar today. =P Gah! I'm starting to rhyme! :s)**

* * *

Judai's POV

A loud pounding at the door woke me up. Again. Didn't this school have more polite ways of waking a guy up?

I forced myself to shuffle over to the door and stared bleary-eyed at Asuka, who was giving me a weird look. "Out of all the days in the school year, I thought this would be one you would actually wake up for," she told me, an eyebrow arched.

"Why's that?" I asked, still thinking about sleep and my nice, warm bed...

"Um, the competition. You're kind of missing it, Judai."

That woke me up.

"Oh, yeah! Forgot about it!" I ran back into my room, slamming the door in Asuka's face as I rushed to get dressed. Then I slid my duel disk onto my arm, slipped my deck into my holster, and ran back outside, ready for some action.

I blew past Asuka, who looked kind of amused and slightly surpised at the same time. "Thanks Asuka!" I called over my shoulder as I disappeared around the corner.

She yelled something after me, but I couldn't hear it.

As I passed a window, I glanced outside and saw some awesome duels taking place. I was missing it!

I put my head down and sped up. And fell on my face two seconds later. It was like my feet just flew out from underneath me.

"Ow!" I said, getting to my feet and groaning. "What...?" That's when I noticed that I wasn't wearing shoes.

I debated on going back to my room. But another glance outside made my decision for me: I'd just have to go in my socks.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to run on a smooth marble floor in socks? It's a lot harder than you'd think, but somehow I managed to get outside without falling again.

Once I was outside, I skidded to a stop on the walkway and smiled happily at all the duels going on around me. Now to see if there was anyone to challlenge.

A lot of people seemed to be sitting along the tree line of the forest watching some of duels play out. What were they doing sitting around? They should've been dueling. I wove through the matches and saw that most of them were Slifers.

I plopped down next to a girl in a red vest and turned to talk to her, but she beat me to the punch. "So who'd you get beaten by?" she asked, sounding mad.

"What are you talking about?" I wondered. "I didn't get beaten by anyone. I haven't even dueled yet." The girl gave me an odd sideways glance through a wave of brown hair, her blue eyes doubtful.

"Then why are you sitting over here?" she asked, as if I wasn't supposed to be there.

"What do you mean?"

"Geez, were you asleep this morning?" Actually, yes. But the girl didn't give me time to say that. "All of the rounds are elimination. Meaning if you get beat one time, you're out of the competition. And to make sure that you don't try to cheat, a program was sent to all the duel disks last night. Any duel disk that drops to zero life points shuts off and won't turn on until this tournament's over. That was explained to everyone this morning, weren't you there for the announcement?"

"Um, no. I was still asleep."

The girl let out an exasperated sigh. "Anyways, there are only a few Slifers left in the competition, and it's because they haven't finished their duels yet. The only Slifer that has a chance of winning is that freak Marie, but she doesn't really count."

"Hey, I'm still in this!" The brunette just gave me a doubtful look. "And Marie's not a freak," I defended, but the girl just ignored my second comment.

"Yeah, and you were sleeping through the beginning of the competition. That doesn't exactly make you seem very reliable. Besides..." she threw a look down at my feet. "Not wearing shoes doesn't make you seem very itimidating, either."

I laughed awkwardly and blushed a bit. "Um, yeah. Oops?" The girl just shook her head and turned away again.

"If you want to be dumb, then go ahead and challenge someone, but it'd be better to just give up now, before you embaress yourself."

"Don't say that! I never give up, and neither should you!"

"Geez, quiet down. You sound like an anime character."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Chandra."

"Well, Chandra, have you dueled against anyone yet?"

"Why do you think I'm sitting over here?" Chandra snapped, avoiding my question.

"Have you?"

A deep sigh. "No. But it's pointless. All Slifers are Slifers because we suck at dueling and it'd be stupid to try to challenge the Obelisk and Ra students."

"I used to beat a ton of Obelisk students at Duel Academia. It's not that hard," I said. Chandra's head whipped around and she gave me a long, hard look. Uh oh.

"Did you say Duel Academia, the famous duel academy on Academy Island? The one that's incredibly hard to get into? The one that's only for elites? The one that every duelist dreams of going to?"

"Ah, yup. That's the one," I said, scratching the back of my head nervously. I hadn't meant to give that one away, but I couldn't take it back now.

Chandra grunted approvingly. "Well, if that's true, I'll give you props for that. Even if you were only a Slifer there, you must've been a damn good duelist to get in in the first place. I don't really think you beat Obelisks though. If the Slifers there are good, then the Obelisks must be untouchable."

"Not really," I muttered. I wanted to tell her that I beat a certain teacher of her's who used to be an Obelisk, but I'd leaked enough of the truth for today. I leaped to my feet. "I'll prove it to you. If I can beat an Obelisk here, you have to preticipate in the tournament."

I got an eyeroll as a response. "Fine. But you're going to lose, and I'll be there to tell you I told you so."

"Nope, I'm going to win, and you're going to have to get your game on!" I ran off to find an Obelisk.

* * *

(Second Person Perspective)

Chandra sat under the shade of the trees, her icy eyes narrowed in suspicion and thought. There was something...familiar? about that kid. She couldn't put her finger on it. Especially the the last line he said before he ran off. Chandra regretted not asking the crazy kid his name.

Wait, wasn't he the new transfer kid? What was his name again? Judai Yuki? **(A/N: Yuki Judai, it sounds better the way it should be, but Chandra is American: First name first, Surname second.)** Where had she heard that name before?

She shrugged it away. Who cared? All that mattered was that he lost the bet and she didn't have to duel.

Chandra watched as Judai tried to get an opponent, without avail. Maybe it was just because he was in his socks, but Chandra had the feeling that none of the people he challenged wanted to duel a Slifer Red student.

She sighed and decided to help Judai out a little bit. She wasn't sure why, but she just felt like helping him. It was probably just because he was so excited to duel that it was annoying.

Her gaze swept over the Obelisk and Ra students standing at the side of the action, ignoring Judai. Who in Obelisk had the shortest temper? Bingo. Heath Jacobs.

Chandra climbed grudgingly to her feet and walked over to the bulky dark-haired kid. "Hey, Jacobs!" she called, waving her hand to get his attention.

"What do you want, Slifer trash?"

"I need to tell you something. You know that new kid? Yeah, Judai, the one over there?" she said, pointing deep into the crowd to where the red-clad kid was annoying everyone with challenges. Heath nodded.

"He thinks he's some hotshot and is telling everyone he could beat you in a duel in just a few minutes. And keeps saying that he's challenged you to a duel already and you refused because you were scared you were gonna lose."

Heath's eye twitched. "That little punk...!"

"I don't think you need to worry too much though. I mean, who believes a Slifer? But I think you need to go teach him a lesson. After all, he is just a Slifer and beating him shouldn't take much effort, right?"

Heath didn't answer, but just turned and stomped away in Judai's direction. Chandra laughed and smiled a bit. _There you go, Judai. A duel, just like you wanted. Hand delivered to ya on a silver platter._

* * *

Judai's POV, first person

I wasn't having much luck finding an opponent. Nobody thought that dueling a Slifer would be any good. It reminded me of the days in Duel Academia. Osiris students were always looked down on too.

Still, I had to find someone willing to duel me. I was just about to ask another person when I suddenly saw someone coming towards me, looking mad about something. What did I do now? As far as I knew, nothing.

"Are you Judai?" the guy growled. He was probably twice my size.

"Yeah!" I answered quickly.

"Are you spreading rumors about me, punk?" he asked, practically snarling at me.

"No!"

"Don't lie to me, kid. I know you're saying that I suck at dueling, that I could be beaten by a lowly Slifer like you!"

"I could beat you, but no, I haven't been spreading rumors about you."

"I could crush you in a second, punk! And just to prove it, I, Heath Jacobs, challenge you to a duel!" Finally, someone willing to duel me.

"I never back down from a challenge!" I replied, getting excited. It had been too long since my last real duel.

Heath stomped past me and headed towards a clear space on the field. I followed close behind him. As I did, I noticed Marie dueling a Ra student, but the Crimson Dragon was nowhere to be seen, at least.

Another glance over my shoulder showed Chandra over in the mix of students still in the tournament, giving me a smirk as I walked behind Heath. She must've been the one who told him that I was spreading rumors.

Heath came to a stop, and I did too several feet away from him. "Game on!" we cried, slamming our decks into our duel disks.

**Judai: 4000**

**Heath: 4000**

"My go!" I yelled. I drew a card from my deck and placed it in my hand. "I summon E-Hero Clayman in defense mode (lv.4/def:2000/atk:800) and place one card face down to end my turn."

"My turn," Heath said, nearly ripping a card from the top of his deck. "I summon Fire Lizard (lv.3/atk:1200/def:1500) in attack mode and then play the spell card Spark of Devastation! If Fire Lizard is out on my side of the field, this card allows me to summon two more from my deck to the field. By sacrificing two of my Lizards, I can summon Fire Dragon (lv.7/atk:3000/def:2300)! Now destroy his Clayman with Flare Demise!"

There were murmurs of approval from the spectators. A level seven monster on his very first turn was pretty impressive. But his monster wasn't going to be around long.

"I activate my trap, Clay Charge! Both my monster and yours are destroyed."

"What?" Heath exclaimed as his dragon dissolved in front of his eyes.

"That's not all. You also take 800 points of damage!" Heath groaned as his life points dropped.

"You forget: I still have my Fire Lizard. Fire Lizard, attack this Slifer punk directly!" The phantom ache of claws hitting my shoulder made me flinch a bit and clutch at my shoulder.

**Judai: 2800**

**Heath: 3200**

I noticed that there were a lot more people watching now.

"I end my turn."

"My draw! I summon E-Hero Sparkman (lv.4/atk:1600/def:1400) in attack mode and equip him with Power Charger! Sparkman, attack his Fire Lizard!"

Heath's lizard disappeared and Sparkman's attack points were boosted to 2800 by Power Charger's effect. "I end my turn."

"Good, my go. I play Fire Salamander (lv.2/def:700/atk:1100) in defense mode. Then I'll activate his special ability. When my Salamander is in defense mode, I'm allowed to choose one spell card from my deck, and I choose Monster Reborn. And now I'll activate it in order to call back my Fire Dragon (lv.7/atk:3000/def:2300). Dragon, take down his Sparkman!"

A blast of heat washed over me and Sparkman. It was too much for Sparkman, even with his power boost, and he dissolved.

**Judai: 2600**

**Heath: 2800**

"I'll play one card face down to end my turn."

I drew another card and smiled. "Then I'll play E-Hero Bubbleman in attack mode (lv.4/atk:800/def:1200)! Now, when he's the only monster on my side of the field, he tends to get a little lonely, allowing me to draw two more cards.

"Perfect!" I said.

"I play Bubble Shot! This raises my Bubbleman's attack points by 800 (lv.4/atk:1600/def:1200). Bubbleman, attack his salamander!"

Once the salamander was gone, I ended my turn.

Heath drew a card, glanced at it, and ordered his dragon to attack Bubbleman.

"I don't think so," I retorted, sending Bubble Shot to the graveyard. "By destroying Bubble Shot, not only does Bubbleman get to stick around for another turn, but all the battle damage gets reduced to zero."

"Che. I end my turn."

"My turn, then!" I drew a card. "Now I'll play the spell Bubble Shuffle. This switches my Bubbleman (lv.4/def:1200/atk:800) and your Fire Dragon (lv.7/def:2300/atk:3000) to defense mode. And now, I can sacrifice my Bubbleman in order to summon E-Hero Edgeman (lv.7/atk:2600/def:1800) from my hand in attack mode! Edgeman, finish off his dragon!"

"You walked right into my trap!" Heath cried, waving his hand triumphantly over his revealed trap card. "Blazing Barricade!"

A wall of fire wrapped around Fire Dragon, destroying my Edgeman and leaving the Fire Dragon completely unharmed.

"What!"

"You see, by simply discarding one card each time you attack, your monster gets destroyed, and mine isn't touched. I also don't take any battle damage. You, however, are a different story. Half of your destroyed monster's attack points are taken straight out of your life points!"

This was trouble. It was going to be hard to beat him with his dragon protected by that card. What was I going to do?

**Judai: 1300**

**Heath: 2800**

* * *

**I'm so evil, leaving you with a cliffhanger again! *evil laugh* Hm, so did you like first half Judai's first duel in this story? I stuck mainly to the E-Heroes because it's easier for me, but don't worry! I haven't forgotten about everyone's favorite aliens. I'll be introducing them here soon, I think. But for now, just sit back and enjoy this blast from the past.**

**Oh, and Marie was supposed to be the only main OC that I was adding, but I think Chandra'll make it more interesting. I'm not really sure how important she'll be, but her main purpose is to add some more detail for now.**


	30. Vs Fire Deck Conclusion

**I LIED. THERE ARE NO NEO SPACIANS IN THIS DUEL! (No Neos either, altough he's technically an Elemental Hero. I'm not really sure why he's an E-Hero, but just know that he won't be here.) Don't hurt me please! I even updated right away so you wouldn't be stuck with a cliffhanger all week. I absolutely promise to have them later in the story. I just decided to stay retro for this chapter and keep it with the E-Heroes.**

* * *

Chandra watched Judai battle with a growing sense of interest. With the level of skill Judai was dueling at, he seemed way more intimidating now (even without his shoes). What Chandra didn't get was why Judai wasn't in Obelisk or at least Ra. It was clear that his dueling was way above a Slifer level.

And not only that, there was just something so familiar about him. So familiar, in fact, that Chandra was ready to tear her hair out in frustration. An Elemental Hero deck...Judai Yuki...Slifer...Duel Academia... Chandra was so close to making the connection, and yet so far away.

She let out a scream of anger, causing several people around her to shift away from her in fear.

Still, now that Heath had played Blazing Barricade, what was Judai going to do? It was going to be almost impossible to beat Heath once he played that card.

* * *

Judai's POV, first person

There wasn't a card in my hand that could defeat his dragon, so I just threw down a facedown and ended my turn.

"Ha!" Heath exclaimed as he drew a card. "Only a little face down card? This duel will be over within a couple of turns! Fire Dragon, attack him directly!"

"Negate Attack!"

"You've saved yourself one turn, Slifer. You won't last another, but I'll end my turn anyway."

"Haha, thanks, because now it's my draw and I can start turning things around..." I drew and smiled. "I play E-Hero Featherman in defense mode (lv.3/def:1000/atk:1000). Then, I'll play R-Right Justice! By this card's effect, I can get rid of any spells or traps equal to the amount of E-Heroes I have on my field. I have one, and the trap I choose to destroy is your Blazing Barricade, leaving your dragon wide open."

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter, because my dragon is too powerful for any of your monsters to even dare attack!" Heath said, looking worried but still keeping up his act.

"True. So I'll throw down a couple of face downs and end my turn there for now."

"My draw!" Heath said. "I summon Fire Gaurdian in attack mode (lv.3/atk:1100/def:1500)! Fire Gaurdian, attack his Featherman!"

"Sorry, Heath! I play Hero Barrier, which blocks your attack."

"But it won't work a second time! Dragon, attack with Flare Demise!" Featherman dissolved, but at least his sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

"You just activated my other trap, Hero Signal! This allows me to summon one level four or below monster from my deck or hand directly to my field." I searched through my deck. "And I choose to summon E-Hero Burst Lady in attack mode (lv.3/atk:1200/def:800)!"

"Again with these weakling monsters! Don't you have anything strong in there?" Heath said. "I end my turn."

"My draw, then!" Kuriboh's voice floated out of the deck, and I knew that the card I needed was right on top.

"Now I play Burst Impact! When Burst Lady is out on my side of the field, I can play this card, which destroys all other monsters on the field!"

"What?!" Heath exclaimed, looking panicked.

"You heard me, Heath. That means that your precious dragon is going to get destroyed. Oh, and you lose 300 life points for each monster that's destroyed. Not so weak after all, huh?"

Heath let out a yell of pain and frustration as his dragon and guardian disintegrated to ash and his life points dropped.

"Well, there's nothing else I can do for now, so I'll end my turn."

"Fine then, I'll go! I summon Fire Moth in defense mode (lv.2/def:900/atk:800) and end my turn."

I drew Pot of Greed and decided to use it. "I play the spell card Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards. Then I'll play the spell Miracle Fusion! By removing my Burst Lady on the field and my Featherman in the Graveyard from play, I can fusion summon E-Hero Flame Wingman in attack mode (lv.8/atk:2100/def:1200)!"

"Wingman, attack his Moth with Sky-Dive Scorcher!" The moth disappeared in a brief flash, then Wingman attacked Heath directly, taking the moth's attack points directly out of his life points.

"Why did I lose life points?" Heath asked angrily. "My moth was in defense mode!"

"Whenever my Flame Wingman destroys a monster, you lose life points equal to the destroyed monster's attack points."

Heath just scowled and didn't say anything else.

"Your go."

**Judai: 1300**

**Heath: 1400**

"I'll throw down a face down and end my turn," Heath said, making me a little suspicious.

I drew the perfect card for this situation. "I summon E-Hero Wildman in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1500/def:1600). Now, Wildman! Attack Heath directly!"

"Not in your life, punk! You set off my trap, Fire God's Anger! When a level seven or above monster with a fire attribute is in my grave, I can destroy an attacking monster and you take damage equal to its attack points! Game over, brat!"

"Your right, Heath. Game over. For you! E-Hero Wildman cannot be affected by spells or traps, making your Fire God's Anger useless."

"Wha-!" Heath managed before he was struck by Wildman's blade.

**Judai: 1300**

**Heath: 0**

I struck up my old pose and said my famous catchphrase in triumph. "Gotcha!"

"H-how was I beaten by S-slifer trash like you?" Heath stammered. I think he was in shock or something. I wasn't really sure how to answer, so I just kind of shrugged and walked away to look for Chandra. She had a duel to prepare for.


	31. A Bit About Chandra

**Okay, even though I wrote it, this chapter annoys me. =( Why? a.) It's main focus on Chandra. b.) It's ssssoooo boring! c.) Kinda predicable if you ask me. But, I couldn't just leave Chandra in the dark about Judai. Dunno why since she's not that important a player yet, but I figured I might as well get it out of the way. Plus, this chapter provides a little background on her in case she does become a main character in the future. If you want, you could skip right over this chapter. I don't mind. I don't think it's that important, but I also don't want to take it out of the story. The next chapter will be better (I hope anyways), because I'll make Chandra duel. But before I can do that, I have to figure out what her deck is going to be. That would help a bit, right? ;)**

* * *

Chandra had to double check and triple check with the people around her to make sure that what she just saw really happened. They seemed just as shocked as she was. Judai took out Heath, who was an Obelisk. Despite the fact that Heath was probably one of the worst Obelisks in the school, that didn't mean that he was easy to beat either.

Judai dueled like a seasoned pro! Her parents would love to hear about him, being scouts for the pro league and all. She would have to tip them off. It was a wonder that he wasn't scouted before, really. And it seemed impossible that he would be in any other dorm besides Obelisk. Chandra decided to ask him about it.

Once Judai was close enough for Chandra to hear, he said, "I won! Guess that means you have to find your opponent now."

"Question."

"Shoot."

"If you're this good at dueling, why are you Slifer?" Chandra demanded.

"Oh, that's easy. I like red." Are. You. Serious? But that wasn't all Judai had to say. "Plus, I'm too busy sleeping to really know what's going on in class." So basically, this kid was in Slifer pretty much by choice? Because it was pretty obvious that he would be in Obelisk if he actually tried in class. Judai was a weird one, to be sure.

At that moment, Judai's stomach decided to put in a comment of its own.

"Oops. That's what I get for skipping breakfast, I guess. Are they keeping any grub out here?" Judai asked, looking around the crowds, hoping for a random food cart.

Chandra sighed and whipped out her cell phone to check the time. It was almost half-past twelve, which was right about lunch time, but everyone was too excited about the tournament to really remember to eat. So there was an all-day buffet set up in the cafeteria of the school for any hungry duelists.

Before Chandra slipped her phone back into her pocket, Judai noticed the little device. "Hey, aren't cell phones against the rules?" He didn't sound like he meant to tell on her, but it was still annoying that he saw it. **(A/N: Like he's one to talk. *eye rolls* Does he forget that he also has a little red cell phone hiding in his room somewhere?)**

After all, it was the phone that Chandra used to contact her parents. And if her parents were normal people, yes, her cell phone would be confiscated. But since her parents were pro-league scouts, Chandra was allowed to keep her phone because the higher-ups in the school board wanted Chandra to tell her parents all about how wonderful the duelists in their school were and get as many kids from the Duel Academy as possible into the pro leagues. It made the school look good, so nothing else mattered, apparently.

"It's lunchtime," Chandra said, making Judai completely forget everything else for the moment. "Come on, I'll take you to the food."

"Oh, sweetness!" Judai cried.

She led him back into the school and it wasn't long before they found themselves in the vast cafeteria, where a few students lumbered around with a tray of food in hand. Since there was next to nobody in there, it was really quiet, almost silent.

"Well, Judai, I brought you to the food, but now I have to go," Chandra said. She was really anxious to find out who Judai was, but asking him outright probably wouldn't get her the answers she wanted. "I want to get my deck ready for my duel, ya know?"

"See ya later, Chandra!" Judai called over his shoulder. He was already half-way to the food carts.

Chandra just shook her head slightly and went to her room, which was conviently not far from the cafeteria. Once safely inside, Chandra breathed a sigh of relief, pulled her phone back out of her pocket, and punched in her dad's number. He was supposed to be on a day off, so he was the most convenient to call.

"I'm kinda busy, Chandra!" her dad snapped into the phone. "Is it something important?"

"I might just have an interesting case for you," Chandra answered. This caused a loud sigh to come over the phone's reciever.

"Get to the point."

"Have you ever scouted a guy named Judai Yuki before? He sounds so familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard of him."

"That sounds Japanese," her dad said, impatiently waiting to see where Chandra was going with this.

"It probably is. And he mentioned going to Duel Academia, the famous one on Academia Island, if that helps any."

"Hm, Duel Academia, a duelist named Judai Yuki... Got anything else on him?"

"Well, he duels with an Elemental Hero deck."

"Ah! I remember now! And the correct way of saying his name is Yuki Judai, since he's Japanese. That was probably throwing me off. Why do you want to know about him? Have you seen him?" Chandra's dad exclaimed, getting excited.

"Yeah, why, who is he?"

"Only the best duelist to ever attend Duel Academia, despite the fact that he wore Osiris red! I got one of his duels on record at home, and it's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. He'd be a huge hit in the pro leagues, an instant success! The only problem was, he disappeared right after his graduation ten years ago, so I couldn't even get a chance to talk to him."

Chandra's phone slipped from her numb fingers in shock. "Ten years ago?" she asked quietly. It was obvious that she was more than surprised by that tidbit of news. After a few seconds, Chandra noticed her dad's voice still coming out of the phone on the floor and scooped it back up before stammering, "Uh, you know, I have something I need to do dad!" _Yeah, like call a psychologist. Or an exorcist. They deal with ghosts, right?_ "I'll let you go, bye!"

She hung up abruptly, cutting off her dad's alarmed protests. Now that she thought about it, Chandra knew where she had seen Judai before. She had watched the tapes of his duel with her dad, over and over again. Being only six at the time, it wasn't surprising that Chandra couldn't really remember him that well.

All of the pieces fit. It was Yuki Judai that Chandra had watched on the TV with her dad. The same Yuki Judai that was attending this school, looking like he hadn't aged a single bit in a really long time.

Then, just as soon as the shock came, it passed. Chandra completely got over the weirdness of the situation and just accepted it. After all, what good was it to spaz over something that wasn't going to change? She shrugged to herself and let out a sigh.

For as long as she could remember, Chandra had always been like that. She just accepted whatever weird thing came her way. Like when her deck started talking to her. It was pretty surprising at first, but then it just came naturally, and this wasn't any different, really.

* * *

**Well, if you did read that, I hope some of it was funny at least. The way I ended the chapter was sudden and really flat, but like I said before, this chapter just bugs me to no end. I can't even explain why I kept this chapter. Oh, well.**


	32. AntiDuel Monsters

**Hello! Dunno what bug crawled into my brain and died during the last chapter, but now I'm over it (I think). Anyways, this chapter's back into the dueling action, and it proves that I am a total, utter nerd. Here's why: Chandra's deck is made out of antimatter monsters. Now, every time I talk about antimatter, I launch into a huge lecture about it and how awesome it is. So, before I can, I'm just going to say thanks to Annie Matsukaze for favoriting this story and get right to the chapter.**

* * *

Judai's POV

After eating all of the fried shrimp in the cafeteria and getting his shoes from his room, Judai went back outside and saw that Chandra's duel was about to start. Thankfully, he was just in time to see Chandra's opponent make the first move.

"I summon Winged Golemn in defense mode (lv.2/def:1100/atk:1200)!" the Ra girl called out. "Your go."

Chandra sighed as she drew, seeming really reluctant to go. "In that case, I play Shadow Summon. That allows me summon out two antimatter monsters level 2 or below as long as I remove them from play when they are destroyed. And I chose two Anti-Slashers in attack mode (lv.1/atk:0/def:0)."

"Why waste your time specially summoning two monsters that don't have attack or defense points?"

"Angela, that's because they are Antimatter monsters. Normal rules don't apply to Antimatter monsters. All of them need to be special summoned. And because they are the exact opposite of normal monsters, they cannot be destroyed or even attacked by other monsters unless they are also made of anti-matter."

"What?" the girl named Angela cried out. "Is that even legal? How can anyone beat you if they can't attack you?"

"It's perfectly legal, because the special abilities of my monsters aren't exactly beneficial to me either. Everytime I want to summon one of them, I have to special summon them. And everytime I want to make a successful attack, I have to have another spell card for that. Most of my monsters usually have little to no attack points, and they can still be destroyed by any monster whose effect negates the abilities of other monsters. Plus, I cannot choose my monster's battle position as long as there are an equal amount of monsters out on your side of the field. The easiest way to damage my lifepoints is to use spell cards. In other words, we're in stalemate unless we use some very helpful spells and traps.

"That being said," Chandra continued, "I'll throw two cards face down and end my turn."

"Okay then, I play Sword Knight in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1200/def:900)," Angela said, still looking confused.

"By the 'Anti' effect, one of my Akumas is forced to defense mode."

"Um, alright then... I activate my Sword Knight's effect. By sacrificing him and my Golem, the combined attack points are deducted from your life points!"

"Not so fast," Chandra said, sweeping her hand over one of her traps. "You've activated my trap card, Black Hole! By this card's effect, all of the monsters on my side of the field are destroyed, removing them from play. Depending on how many monsters were destroyed, that is how many turns that Black Hole gets to stay in play. Two monsters were destroyed, meaning that I cannot be touched by any from you damage for two turns."

"However, playing Black Hole has set off my other trap, White Hole. When Black Hole is played, all damage and attacks are taken in, and are lost in an endless maze. White Hole has the ability to spit them back out. This is a risk to both of us, because there is no way to predict where the damage will come out. If the White Hole ends up on my field, that means that I recieve the damage. But if it's your side of the field, then it takes up one of your monster slots for the two turns that Black Hole is in play, and you recieve any damage that you sent into the Black Hole."

The moments seemed to slow down as Chandra waited to see what side the the White Hole would show up on. Her heart sank when she saw a white cloud-looking thing appeared on her side of the field.

Something dark came out of the cloud and lanced through her, taking her life points down to 1600. "Damn," Chandra hissed a hand clutching at her chest for a second. "I always did have terrible luck."

Angela started laughing. "You had me scared there for a second, Slifer! I almost believed that you had a chance of winning this duel, but you just willingly dealt yourself damage. You're such an idiot. With my deck, one more hit and you're through. Unfortunately, it's your turn."

"My draw then," Chandra said, pulling another card. "I play the spell card Supernova, which destroys all of my spell cards on my side of the field. But in order to activate it, I have to send one card in my hand to the graveyard."

"That does you no good!" Angela cackled. "You would only have one card left in your hand and you can't even to use it if it's a monster!"

"True. It's the card in my hand that I plan to use though. The one I sent to the graveyard is the one you have to be concerned about."

"And why's that? It's in the graveyard."

"Right again. But tell me, Miss Teacher's Pet. Do you remember what I told you earlier about this deck? Normal rules don't apply to my monsters. Meaning that if, on the rare occasion where my monsters are merely sent to the grave, instead of being removed from play, they are automatically summoned to my side of the field."

"And the monster that I now summon is the Anti-Angel (lv.12/atk:0/def:0)."

"It's a level twelve, but it still doesn't have any attack or defense points," Angela pointed out, confused.

"Not yet. Not until I play it's special ability. By my Angel's special effect, I can pull a spell card out of my deck, and the card I chose is Reverse Polarity, which is big trouble for you. Normally, it would cause my monsters to become normal monsters and yours to become 'Anti' monsters for a turn. In the end, it wouldn't make a difference because I still wouldn't be able to attack you.

"But since you don't have any monsters on your side of the field, only my Angel is affected. And when my monsters are switched to being normal monsters, they recieve attack points that suits their level. Being level twelve, that means that my Angel gets 4000 attack points!"

Angela could only gasp and try to speak, but no words actually came to being. "Angel, attack Angela directly!"

And with one strike, Angela lost the duel. Judai found himself feeling excited. He thought about how awesome it would be to duel against Chandra's deck.

Chandra didn't really seem to share his enthusiasm. When she found him a few minutes later, she looked really annoyed. "Okay, a deal's a deal. I'm officially part of the tournament. Happy?"

Judai nodded with a smile.

"Well, don't expect me to be in it long. I just got lucky in the last duel."

"What are you talking about, Chandra? Your deck is awesome!" Judai said.

"If you say so."

* * *

**So how did you like the antimatter deck? Really weird, huh? Maybe sometime in the near future, Judai might get his wish and duel against Chandra.**


	33. Asuka's Vow

**I am very, very, very sorry! (How many times have I said that now since I've started this story? ^^') I was only planning on taking some time off so I could update my other story, but then when I went to continue this one, I noticed that I was completely stuck. Tires-spinning-in-the-mud sort of stuck. So I'm sorry for the horribly late update. But now it's here; hopefully you like it. I've decided to develope Asuka's character more in this one. Nothing else really happens, but in this point of the story, there isn't too much I could do otherwise. I could do a whole bunch of duels, I suppose, but that would lose it's touch after a while. So this was the best solution I could come up with. Besides, there aren't a lot of Asuka chapters, so I figured I'd give her more attention for now. And thank you to Taeniaea and KaletheSilverRaven (love the name, by the way) for becoming the newest followers to this story, despite my unreliable-ness. A special thanks to p94832716 for favoriting, and also to all of my other viewers who have probably been wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth.**

* * *

Asuka was sitting in front of the glowing computer screen, checking out stats for all of her students late into the night. She smiled softly as she read Judai's progress. He'd beaten an Obelisk and about three Ra students on his first day. Asuka would've been sorely disappointed if he hadn't, considering his personality.

The next student that Asuka looked up was Chandra Adams. She had only dueled once, but Asuka was genuinely surprised to see that she did at all. Normally, due to Chandra's "special case," she wasn't even forced to duel for the exams. It seemed weird the the girl would duel of her own free will, considering she hadn't since the day she arrived at North Academy.

And not only had she duelled, but she won! What happened to make her change her mind? That's when Asuka knew. Chandra met Judai. It would be really hard for someone not to love dueling with Judai around. It was pretty much impossible, considering his boundless enthusiasm for the game.

Asuka was just glad that Judai seemed to be enjoying himself. After everything that happened at Duel Academia, it was a wonder why Judai didn't snap a long time ago, really.

At the time, Asuka really hated Judai when he withdrew from his friends. She always wanted him to be the strong one, the one that was always optimistic no matter what happened. And when Judai avoided everyone, Asuka felt that all the years that they had been friends meant absolutely nothing to him.

Even when he left during graduation, Asuka still hadn't completely come to term's with Judai's new personality. But over the years since then, Asuka realized that she was just being selfish. She thought about all of the times that Judai had saved her, and the Academia. When things looked bad, he was always there to fix it. Any normal person would've collapsed from the strain a long time ago.

She felt ashamed for ever feeling mad towards Judai, especially after knowing that he was just trying to protect her and the others by keeping his distance.

But now, Judai was given a second chance. A new duel academy, a fresh start. Unfortunately, it looked like Judai was going to have to play the hero again. Asuka's smile dropped when she thought about the Crimson Dragon. To be honest, the matter often slipped from her mind.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Judai saved countless people over and over again, and now he was going to have to do it again! It wasn't fair! And although Judai would never admit it to anyone, Asuka knew that Judai was sick of playing the hero too. But he'd never say it. He'd just defend everyone like he always did.

Well, it wasn't going to happen. Not again. This time, Asuka was going to save Judai. After all, it was a teacher's job to protect their students, right?


	34. Marufuji Brothers Enter

**Ah, should I go hide? Oh, well. I'd deserve getting attacked for waiting this long, and then giving you this little jip of a chapter. Anyways, I'm just kinda glad to be making progress, even if it's only a little. This chapter will be replacing my little plea for help, just because it bothers me to leave in a note in the middle of a story.**

**Lastly, I'm really happy to find that there are still new people reading this story, despite how deep it already is into the story. I'm genuinely surprised and happy. I'd like to thank everyone who tried to help me out of my slump, and also *deep breath* Agana of the Night, Lucifer's Remnants, The Darkness Run-Away, princessamina 223 (for favoriting), Celtic Water Spirit, Cstan, Miffdogga, MoeLovegiR, anishirou, donalladd15 and lilo202 (for following). *Whew!* If I skipped someone, I'll feel horrible, so please tell me if I'm missing anyone!**

* * *

There was a knock on Johan's door late at night. It was a good thing that Ruby kept him awake. Johan yawned as he went to answer the door, expecting Judai to be the one standing outside. What he didn't expect to see was an anxious Asuka.

"Ah, hey there, Asuka! I didn' know you were here!" he greeted pleasantly.

"I'm a teacher."

"Well, can' say I'm surprised. Wha brings ya here?"

"Why did you come back? You only decide to come back now, after ten years, to the academy?"

Johan was confused. Surely Judai had to know that Asuka was a teacher, right? And wouldn't he have talked to her about what was going on?

"Judai didn' tell you?" he asked.

"No, he didn't," Asuka answered, kinda sounding a little mad.

"Ya better come on in," Johan said, pulling Asuka into the room and closing the door behind her. "Do ya know about the Crimson Dragon?"

"Yes, I know that it is a dangerous card that has been harming students lately. A girl named Marie Windsford has it. Judai and I were looking into it."

"That dragon is why I'm here," Johan explained. "Judai called Hayato to get information on it, only Hayato got caught by Mr. Pegasus. It turns out that Pegasus had the card locked away tight. It's a bit of a mystery as to how it disappeared. Apparently it's some sorta unknown god or somethin' like that."

"So what does that have to do with you being here?"

"Mr. Pegasus set up the whole competition to get that card back, but he didn't want to just take the card, and he needed an excuse to hold that competition." Johan shrugged. "I was tha' excuse, I guess. I'm just wonderin' why Judai didn' tell you anythin'."

"I was wondering the same thing," Asuka sighed.

* * *

Near the I2 headquarters in Japan

Sho let himself into the apartment, groaning with exhaustion. Mr. Pegasus had made him stay up for the past few nights, organizing that tournament at North Duel Academy. And better yet, Sho had to pack for the trip to the academy tomorrow. He didn't really see why he had to be with, but orders were orders.

"Are you home Sho?" Ryo called from the apartment's kitchen.

"Yeah," he replied, flopping onto a couch and staring at the blank TV screen. Ryo appeared from the kitchen and silently passed a can of soda to Sho before opening his own. "I'm going to be gone for a few days to oversee the end of a tournament, but I should be back in a few days."

"Really? Where?"

"North Duel Academy. There's a card that Mr. Pegasus wants there, only he won't tell me why. It's something like the Crimson Dragon or something like that."

Ryo's dark eyes widened. He echoed the name quietly under his breath. "I'm coming with," he demanded, leaving no room for argument. Sho was going to resist, but he knew it was a futile effort. Ryo almost looked scared about something, and he was never scared of anything.

"Why?" Sho asked, suddenly concerned. His brother didn't answer, and didn't talk the rest of the night as he packed his bags for the trip.


	35. A Devious Angel

**Hello! In a pretty good mood right now. Wanna know why? Slump broken! And it's all thanks to crabby94832716essence, who has favorited this story (I'm delayed on saying it, though T_T) and given me an awesome idea. It's literally a whole story changer. Kind of. It changes the flow and direction of the story. Anyways, many thanks! I'm sure a lot of people are saying the same right now. =)**

* * *

Back at North Duel Academy (nighttime)

The Crimson Dragon materalized beside the sleeping Marie. Today, he had felt the prescence that he hadn't felt for several hundred years. His dreaded enemy, the one who had taken his god status and who had freed him from the vault in the I2 headquarters. It was so powerful, it was a wonder that he hadn't felt it before.

Casting one last worried look at Marie, he shot of her room's window and out into the night. Was it that Judai kid? No, his power didn't feel the same. It was someone else. Someone who, before now, had been hiding in the shadows.

There, down in the gardens. A quick flash of movement had caught the dragon's attention. His massive wings folded and he entered a steep dive. The ground cracked as he landed in front of the figure. Without a doubt, this person was his query. The oppressive power was nearly choking the dragon now.

Light from the full moon streamed down into the garden, so it was easy to see the shape of a girl, one of the Slifer students at the academy. Clearly, it wasn't this little girl that was making the Crimson Dragon this anxious. It was what was possessing her.

"You have some nerve showing your face here, Angel," he snarled.

Cold grey eyes blinked up to look at him. A haunting laugh drifted eerily onto the air. "That's pretty funny coming from you, Set. Who has been the one causing trouble and chaos at this academy for some time? At least I have the decency to hide my presence."

"Enough! Why did you free me after all these years?" It had been a question that had been bothering Set for a long time.

"Who knows?" Angel answered, flicking brown hair over her shoulder arrogantly and smiling.

"You bi-!" Set roared, raising a black claw to strike the grinning girl down. But before he could, her voice interrupted him from behind.

"Now, now. I can't have you killing my dear host. I'll be taking my leave." And with that, the prescence disappeared.

Set spun, but Angel was already gone. His twin heads arched back to the sky and howled in frustration.

* * *

Angel slipped into her room, and let out a laugh of triumph. The pieces were all aligning as she planned. The god, the king, and the pawns were all falling into place, and now all she had to do was knock them all down.

* * *

**Quick afternote here. Okay, Egyptian god Set was the god of chaos. In case you hadn't noticed, that's who I'm claiming the Crimson Dragon is. And I know that we know about him, but I'm changing that. So, Set was previously unknown to people in this story.**


End file.
